From the book, “Woman Overboard,” by Jo Kadlecek (excerpted in “When You Pray” by Rueben Job):
“I’ve never understood how to walk beside the ogres and monsters of this career-driven culture, so rife with fire-breathing options and man-eating standards. I’ve never quite figured out how to blow fresh air into buried dreams or pull out maidenly features to win the favor of some boss-king. Sure, I could do practical things, like dust off my resume and send it to that PR firm. I could revisit an old fantasy for radio and call that producer or venture into a new land altogether as an apprentice to a photographer. I could. But the should whispering from my shoulder draws gigantic question marks in my soul. And so the cautions of culture linger long in this place called vocation…And I ask, what should I do to earn a living? Why is living sometime to be earned anyway? How come this road feels so bumpy, so dangerous? So littered with ghosts and daggers, tricks and treasures? Why is to so hard to know what to do with our lives? The question prods me daily. But so far I have not found many answers in the Classifieds section.”