That’s Exactly Why I Was Sacked

I’ve been reading the online diary of New Escapologist contributor Dickon Edwards from the beginning.

This is for a gig: I’m editing Dickon’s diary for print (and the project is almost fully funded on Kickstarter, so maybe you can be the one who tips it over).

After seeing the classic Mick Jagger movie Performance at a London cinema, Dickon writes:

[They’re showing it] again this Wednesday at 1pm. Tickets are £4 and include a free tea or coffee. I think I’ll go. If I had a day job, I’d phone in sick to attend.

Actually, that’s exactly why I was sacked from an office job in Bristol circa 1993. I felt like seeing a matinee of Groundhog Day far more than going into work. So I phoned in sick and chose happiness for that day. It wasn’t the first time. Come the Monday, I was told to clear my desk. I’d do it again like a shot. I’m fairly certain no one died from insolvency documents not being typed up.

Doubtless some toiling readers will be appalled by that above confession. People tell me, “That’s all very well Dickon, but I have bills, a mortgage and an ungrateful chinchilla to support. I can’t afford to lose my job.” Well, neither could I at that point. But I survived somehow. Once again, life is either a disaster or an adventure. So better make it an adventure.

That’s what I love most about Dickon. A fellow traveller in this regard, he takes a risk sometimes, chooses happiness. And, as he says, we survive somehow.

It’s true that if everyone who was unhappy with their job acted like me, civilisation would collapse at once. But oh, what a party!

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I recommend Dickon’s diary for Escapologists, either through the elegant book we’re working on or through the also-elegant original web pages.