Pol
interesting time to be raising this, given where I'm at. At one point I pursued a research career, worked crazy hours, published papers, travelled the world presenting my work, got an entry in Who's Who In the World. I thought I was the man.
Then I realised my marriage had drifted on and beyond, ditto for the many friends I used to hang with and my music (didn't touch my drums in 10 years). No doubt my work contributed to our current knowledge and in a way has been immortalised...but I came out the other side a decidedly poorer person. That was my wake up moment.
I changed careers got back into music and found myself married again to someone pretty darned special. Funny enough, none of this is getting as much attention as my earlier career, but it's a meaningful job that makes a difference to public health, I'm loving the music I'm making again and my wife and I have just moved to a farm. Sitting on the porch, watching the sun set and our animals and the wildlife is tremendously satisfying. We are aiming to be completely self sufficient and reduce our footprint on this planet - as others have said, leave it the way we found it.