journal features

another two-fer

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2019.12.19

Today was another with two good things.

First, I met with an old boss at another life insurance firm. He told me at some length about the difficulties facing Tokyo and the problems with the employment situation there. And in particular about the problems faced by the firm he's with. But, he also suggested that there were a few people at that firm that remembered me fondly from way back, and that he'd keep an eye open on my behalf.

Then I went down to the lobby and met with someone I know who works at that same firm (he and my former boss don't know each other). He took me to a rather good Thai restaurant in the area and we caught up. Happily, we'd last seen each other about 18 months prior as he's the husband of one of Mari's closest friends. Like everyone else, he's got ideas on potential employers I can speak with.

rand()m quote

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.

—John Gardner