This morning I sent out an emailed note announcing, to about 200 people in my rolodex, that my employment situation has changed. Aside from a few details about transition and updating their contact information for me, this is what it said:
I leave on good terms with Earth Island: my boss, Dave Phillips, was extremely reluctant to accept my resignation. The decision was for personal reasons: I’ve left because my 16-year-old dog, Zeke, is in need of 24/7 supervision these days and yet is enjoying life too much for us to make that final vet call just yet. And Becky and I can afford to lose my income, so we’re taking advantage of that fact.
The silver lining in this decision, aside from uninterrupted quality time with Zeke in his declining weeks, is that I’ll be able to take on finishing my Joshua tree book as a full-time job. It’s about time, after ten years of research.
I’ve gotten a few very nice notes in response from friends and colleagues, from some of whom I have not heard in some time. And I also got this, just now, from a person I know not at all well:
Well isn’t that nice that you abandon doing important work in order to play with your dog. I bet the people on the front lines fighting environmental battles, like the indigenous people you portrayed in Earth Island Journal back when you still had a conscience, are really glad to know that you think your dog is more important than their struggles and their lives. Or that she is more important than your reader’s right to know about those struggles.
One more self-indulgent yuppy shows his true colors.
Can you believe this person? Zeke’s not a girl. Talk about failing to pay attention.
I will say there are some things I will not miss about that job.
Well, I think that commenter was way off base and out of line, not to mention offensive in a “I don’t know you at all but I am perfectly qualified to judge your priorities” kind of way, to say the least. I do hope, though, as I mentioned once before, that Earth Island finds someone who can provide the publication with the kind of editorial leadership and investigative journalism that has inspired me since I became a subscriber to the Journal. I think the environmental community needs your perspective, whether some of them can comprehend the occasional ironic touch or not. I’m fed up enough with my own job that I’d consider applying, except that I don’t think I possess the writer/editor or cat-herding skills you must have to have to get the magazine out. Have fun with Zeke and I look forward to the book when it’s finished. If you have further library access needs, don’t hesitate to get in touch with my friend Kristen at CSU Channel Islands - she can probably get you any JSTOR or other academic resources you need (see http://faultline.org/index.php/site/comments/butter/ - comment #12).
Is there a higher concentration of assholes in environmentalism than in daily life, or do they just feel less constrained about showing it?
Also, that Joshua Tree book? No environmental relevance at all, I’m sure.
How pathetic!
Looks like one more holier-than-thou hippie just showed his true colors, which are a crusty hateful green, a spiteful yellow, and a particularly vile shade of babyshit brown bile.
What an utter jackass—and, may I add, not a very good reader, either. You are most explicitly NOT “abandoning important work:” you are being there for a family member who needs you and working on a book that needs to be written.
And accusing you of “self-indulgence” really takes the cake, since I can’t imagine how that email could’ve been more self-indulgent or self-righteous.
I’d like to mock this person for calling you a “yuppy,” but since I use that word as the ultimate epithet myself, I really can’t.
I know that person. Buzz kill at every Bay Area social gathering.
heh—you’re a yuppie? that in itself is pretty rich.
might be nice to not get much mail for a while, eh?
Can you believe this person? Zeke’s not a girl.
Of course not. He’s a miniature French poodle or my name’s not Kirby Olson.
Fred, thank you. Though my cat-herding skills are mainly notable by their absence: I relied heavily on my colleague Audrey’s organizational skills. I also relied heavily on sheer luck. In five years I don’t think I ever had an issue that didn’t have a gaping hole in it a month before press time, and only once were we late to the printer, and that by a couple days. I basically spent my time there pulling rabbits out of hats.
...the irony…it hurts
I would like to formally disavow anyone posting as Kirby Olson on this blog, unless — as in the case above — said person is funnier than Ann Althouse.
Fortunately, that only rules out the real Kirby Olson.
Didn’t someone write a song called “A Girl Named Zeke”?
You know, I would resent the fact that people are assuming this person is male, if I weren’t fairly convinced of that myself. I think the pious-asshole-without-a-life gender ratio is at least 10 to 1.
“I basically spent my time there pulling rabbits out of hats. “
rabbits out of hats at an environmental non-profit organization? really?
i don’t believe it!
Geez, another right I have neglected to demand because I didn’t even know it was mine: the right to kept be up-to-date on the struggles of indigenous people without actually having to get off my ass and engage with them in any way. The right to have information I consider important about the world delivered to my door in a predictable and unchanging fashion by minions who have been assigned this task. Just wait til the person whose job it is to peel your emailer’s organic grapes for him or her gets fed up and quits. Self-righteousness will roll down like an ever-flowing stream.
Good for you. I’m looking forward to reading your Joshua tree book. One would think that a macho name like Zeke would also be a clue, which just proves that some people can be clueless.
What an assberet. It’s people like that who contribute to burnout.
You know, it never ceases to amaze me when people take time and effort to call other people names.
That letter writer is a tool.
Heh. So if you adopt one starving orphan, this guy would immediately send you a nasty email telling you what a shit you were for not saving them all.
Chris, shoot him a message back and say this:
“Thank you for your recent comment. But I’d feel MUCH guiltier if you would detail for me the great amount of work YOU have done for the environment, and the indigenous peoples, in the past few years.”
“Hi!
I’ve got poor impulse control and a large resevoir of unexamined anger!
I’m also narcissistic and boundaryless!
How dare you give up a job I wish I could have!
I’m going to smear some poo on you!”
yrs, BDL
Anyone with the time to recieve the e-mail, formulate that response and send it off confident of their own superiority isn’t actually on the front lines of anything.
He is not sending urgent mail from the front lines of Cochabamba or Oaxaca more like the front of the line at Peet’s Coffee and Tea. He is fighting the good fight though: his coffee is organic he yelled at the stupid girl behind the counter to make sure she got it right.
Ellen -
And then when he found out it was organic but not free trade, he got her fired. To make a point about sustainable agriculture, donchaknow.
Free-floating anger like the exemplar above is in itself a form of environmental pollution.
Xopher -
Part right. All Greek dogs are boys, and all Greek cats are girls. Gendered nouns = fun!
Mr. NastyNotes should ask himself, WWZD?”
Also, I’ve usually seen it spelled ‘YuppIE’ not ‘YuppY’. How dumb can you get?
OBviously someone who has never been close friends with a dog. Sure… dogs are mostly nonjudgmental, but even THEY have limits!
Delete the bitter note—You are giving him air supply just by posting. And people have to react.
Glad to read about the changes. If you ever get up to Seattle, come by Good Nature Publishing for a visit.
Did you read Boston Review’s essay on climate change? Good writing
See link
http:/goodnaturepublishing.blogspot.com/
Best fishes,
Timothy
(former advertiser for Earth Island)
Yeah, Tim, but I’m not giving credit for his rant. That’s gotta sting.
We’ll be visiting Seattle sometime soon, at least after Zeke’s gone, as Becky’s sister just moved there cruelly and callously taking my nephew and niece with her.
I’ve noticed that people who are filled with boundlesser and more passionate love for the universe and all mankind than the rest of us tend not to like people very much.
... besides, you’re too old to be a yuppie.
Actually, now that you ask us, we really are glad to know that you think your dog is more important than our struggles and our lives. We know Zeke is an exceptionally good boy, and we have always loved him from afar. Go ahead and care for him, Mr. Clarke. We’re rooting for you.
Also we thought that graphic novel of yours was very funny.
just to affirm:
A great many of us have greatly appreciated your efforts on the EIJ these past years. You’ve done outstanding work and (nearly all of) us who knew your work are forever grateful.
I think you’re to be commended as well not just for lasting so long, but for moving on for good reason, in a healthy and positive direction. It’s too rare that happens in these burnout circles.
Regards to Zeke, with props for his taste in humans.
Ok, don’t know the person, don’t know nothing, but suggestion:
take it from the “good side”! Apparently you’ll be missed!
(I mean ... how would it have sounded something like: “Oh, you’re leaving? Who cares!” ???)
Everybody is responsible for its own life and it looks to me like you’ve done more than many others, so ...
take care of Zeke ... and yourself!
I suspect it’s another case of someone deluding him or herself into thinking that they are an amazing person for doing something trivially “good” (knitting a nasty hat for charity, reading (and only reading) about environmental problems, recycling yogurt containers while driving a hummer, going “rah” while someone else does real work, etc.). Of course, that all goes to bits when real life intrudes or someone calls him or her on the bullshit.
You’ve harshed his/her mellow, man.
As a result of a scientific experiment involving the recombination of DNA, I have created a hybrid of Kirby Olson and Ann Althouse. I believe this new creature will be funnier and more improved than both the original subjects combined.
He is not a she. She is not a dog. No—this magnificent IT is the new Kirby Althouse!!
That really caught me by surprise. I thought I was going to read a story about someone cool from your past.
Of course, it’s wonderful - inspiring really - that you’re taking the time to be with Zeke when he needs his best friend to be with him. Good luck in the coming, hopefully peaceful, weeks.