
Then there's this: When I got my degree in English and career day came and went without a job offer, I strapped on my tool belt and went to work as a carpenter, which segued into Bay 98 Construction company and 17 men on our payroll. I still have my tools, and a good deal of my strength. Here, I've been framing-up a little cottage I built recently. The old surgeon Tomas in Milan Kundera's THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING finds himself content to be a window washer and a farmer. And, for me, too, there is a certain contentment in this kind of plain work with my hands. As they say to aspiring writers: Don't give up your day job.