Digital Hemmingway?
I live on Capital Hill in Seattle. A diverse neighborhood filled with world-class restaurants, shops and coffee shops. In my travels outside of Seattle it seems coffee shops are simply a place where people go to buy coffee. I see them in a frantic rush zipping in and zipping out. I get the impression that if I were to attempt to strike up a conversation I would be pushed out of their way!
In Seattle, however, coffee shops are a place for socializing. On Capital Hill you can relax in a comfortable couch, plug in your laptop, and chat with your neighbors while working and sipping on your coffee. Having grown up in English boarding schools – I particularly enjoy coffee shops as they remind me of the “common room” where students would gather to do their homework and socialize.
Every day after work I find myself putting in an extra 2-3 hours work at one of these coffee shops. Unchecked, I can easily work 60-80 hour weeks. This is not uncommon.
Last night as I was working in a coffee shop on Olive way - a man came and sat at the table across from me. It was snowing last night and the man’s cheeks were red from the cold and his face was long and weary. His jacket was horribly stained. His long scraggly beard had remnants of some meal left in it. About the time that I noticed how his fingernails were caked black with years of accumulated dirt… the smell hit me. The kind of mixture of months of accumulated body odor and urine that indicates a homeless man.
My heart skipped a beat as I was overwhelmed with compassion for this old man. It was particularly cold out and I figured this poor homeless man had come in to escape the cold. I noticed he didn’t even have a coffee to drink. I was reminded of the horror stories I had heard while doing volunteer work for the low income housing project downtown.
As I was imagining the rough life this man must lead… and pondering whether I should buy him a coffee… he whipped out a brand new top of the line Dell XPS laptop! Tricked out – it shined a fluorescent blue. He plugged in the shining machine and started typing away furiously! He took on the air of an experienced and focused computer user... perhaps even a software developer?
Taken aback – I pondered… perhaps consumed by his technical passion he just let the rest of his life slide? Perhaps things like personal hygiene no longer mattered to him – just the code! A sort of Matrix meets Hemmingway? Maybe he is an eccentric genius? Like a Buddhist Monk whose only possessions are his robe and bowl - his only possessions are his laptop and code? I strained to see if I could spot an “MS Asset” tag on the laptop or some other sign that he too may be a blue badge... but I could not see any.
Of course I personalized the event and asked myself – “Is that me in 30 years?” There have been times when I was overzealous in my work at the neglect of my other life responsibilities... would that eventually lead to life like that?
Whatever the explanation – this has motivated me to regain some sense of life-work balance!
