FWIW.... read Art and Fear, one of the best $10 you'll ever spend. It concisely addresses your dilemma.

Go do good work. Just do it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0961454733/103-4601397-5563020?v=glance&n=283155

I had a close friend who used to kid about wearing her "birth control clothes" on the weekend... tattered and stained jeans of such undeniable repulsion to guarantee her practical infertility.

Accordingly, I find myself wondering if there was intentional subtext in Salon's choice of photos to accompany Ms. Eden's interview? My immediate reaction to that photo in conjunction with the general topic of 'No sex' was not one of surprise.

But I digress....

This woman maintains an entire lifetime of confusion, literally from one end to the other, then offers her latest conclusions/confusions as guidance to others?

Ms. Eden, believe me I am all for conservatives conserving their genitalia. I wish they could all somehow be permanently deactivated. Sadly, there's only much evidence to the contrary... to wit, our friends Foley, Haggard, and an unending stream of other do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do conduits to morality.

This book, its author, its observations, its conclusions, its advice warrant the serious consideration due to a mattress label, as do most of the screeds from the hypocritcal right.

FWIW, I read both articles and paid attention to the content, considered the extensive experience of the author, balanced it against my knowledge of the ATC system and flight operations. I agreed with a lot of points, was generally entertained by both articles, learned some new information, and was presented with some thoughtful points to consider. All of this I got in the context of my favorite internet destination, Salon.

I didn't even bother to laugh at the ad hominem attacks on the author. Posting is like booze. It makes people unsavory and irritating. Everyone has an opinion, and a lot of people confuse their feelings with useful knowledge. It isn't so. Listening to music isn't the same as peforming it. Being a patient isn't the same as treating an injury. Turning on your cell phone or shiny Mac doesn't make you an engineer or designed, and placing your statistically overweight ass inside an airplane doesn't make you a pilot or ATC architect.

Some opinions are just worth more than others and I am thankful I only read the articles, a luxury not afforded to the unfortunate author.

I'd suggest, Pilot Patrick, that you can safely flush any comment calling you a 'stupid motherfucker'. I certainly do ignore them. There really are a lot of stupid people out there, and a lot of them bought computers, apparently. It's hard, I am sure, not to take it personally.

Writing something online is kind of like sticking your head out of the cockpit at altitude. It's only air rushing by, right? What harm could it do? Well, it's a cold, cold wind, for one thing. And air has substance at those speeds and not much oxygen (judged by partial pressure for anyone who would like to question my physics creds.) It would hurt.

I enjoy your writing, content, and opinion. And I appreciate the alternate viewpoint you present, and moreso, understand from whence it derives. No one in any of these responses is less sympathetic to The Man in the form of the airlines than I. I do recognize this as a complex situation, and sense the same hysteria here as surrounds sex criminals... way out of proportion to the alleged offenses and not at all a one-size-fits-all solution in the form of Passenger Bill of Rights legislation.

Can anyone really think that the 535 miscreants in DC and the Current Occupant can solve a technical problem like this with legislation? Or that they should be while we suffer real problems that could use some attention, like Iraq, global warming, impeachment (I wish!), restoration of our Constitutional protections, homeland preparedness?

Lighten up folks. Pilot Patrick isn't the enemy. He's an informed observer and deserves someo politeness, as do we all.

J,

This thread is full of good advice; some sterner than needed and some quite encouraging.

Here's some more... read "Art and Fear", by Orland and Bayles, a short read on the perils and rewards of making art. It is one of the best books I own, and I have given away scores of copies.

Don't feel too alone. Lots of creative types are stuck in the tender trap of making an income in non-creative ways. The struggle I have always witnessed for the last 30 years as an engineer is for people to figure out that they are in a trap first, then to wiggle free as best they can. For some, it's a tearing away process; for others a death of ambition followed by a real death; for some, the development of sources of parallel fulfillment. Your story is whatever it is, but just adds to the throng of humanity doing the same thing... figuring out how to make something beautiful

Countless artists worked until late in life. A few of reknown actually started late, but it is the exception, not the rule.

I think at least one writer above encapsulated it with the 'We are already dead' motif. It's a fact. You must not put off the process of becoming fulfilled any longer. This is your last chance at life. Do something today to move yourself in that direction.

Good luck, have fun, show off! (Grow an extra thick skin, too! It'll come in handy!)