…and four ‘Totem’ quotes to mark a year of ‘career pause’.
Well, well…
This past Sunday 9 June marked both my 7th Escape from Alcatraz triathlon, and one year since calling a “pause” on my career in finance on a long-stewing hunch.
Poignantly, too, the Escape from Alcatraz on Sunday 9 June 2019 was the date I put in a call home to Donegal in the hour after the race and learnt of Mum having aggravating stomach pains, and the decision made to the next morning get to the doctor. That day that was the beginning of our understanding of Mum’s deadly cancer that took her just four months later.
One Year of Project Blank Canvas
With rattling through so much reading and reflection this last year, I thought to this week share three quotations that deeply resonated and that are principles for how I want to live, and how I want to apply myself to work and the world.
The first, for me, refers to instinct and essence. Kundera’s reference to ‘the right thing’ is a tease, because it carries the negative sense of the phrase as in ‘the right thing as someone else sees it’.
What more right thing is there than the thing of which we are most sure is our essence in moving forward in our lives? And when we see how that essence can be expressed in work, that is the work that becomes essential. Right…? Go, essence :)!
“He was not at all sure he was doing the right thing, but he was sure he was doing what he wanted to do.”
– Milan Kundera, in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (1984)
Worry and over-adherence to the need for comfort or safety is the great scourge of our times, I believe. We get the very best out of ourselves in recognizing that with good character and hard work and patience, comfort and security is a privileged certainty compared with most centuries of civilization.
So we are blessed in this age to have so much more opportunity to strive for more than surface securities – ‘money’ and ‘status’ being typical expressions of modern-day security.
“Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
– Helen Keller in “The Open Door” (1957)
And, finally, my most ‘totem’ quotation. Because it’s interesting for me to notice how often parts of this quote come to mind in the last ten years, in random moments, as if I was hypnotized by the words of this 18th century French writer and philosopher. That’s just the way it is when we stumble on a concept that deeply resonates…
“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.”
– Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand (1768–1848) a French writer, politician, diplomat, and historian, often considered the founder of Romanticism in French literature.
How about next week I share with you some of my own ‘mantras’ and concepts that I’ve noticed repeatedly coming to mind in moments over the last year since quitting work to toy with the dream of ‘something new’…? I like the vibe of that, stay tuned…
Escape From Alcatraz 2024 Race Wrap
Sharing with you my race report to the 81 supporters of my 2024 fundraising campaign for mentoring programs for inner city youth in San Francisco, an organization called Real Options for City Kids.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Kevin Brennan <brennkp@gmail.com>
Date: Monday, June 10 2024 at 9:52 PM PDT
Subject: Alcatraz 2024 Yesterday – Thank You!
To: Kevin Brennan <brennkp@gmail.com>
Hey guys,
Just had to write to thank you for pulling into support in my 7th Escape from Alcatraz tri yesterday!
You pledged $5,996 for Real Options for City Kids in San Francisco.
Just seeing all your different names pop onto the donation roster over the last few weeks meant so much – especially those from London days, and that I have not seen in some time!
It was a chilly but fast race, a foggy cold day. Ugly currents and chop around the island meant the swim was shortened from the full 1.5 mile crossing to a safer longshore swim (probably around a mile)
I settled into the swim quicker than usual with the boat position putting us in the water nearer to the city than Alcatraz (see below), and right into a fast longshore drift current…just 28 minutes in the water against previous times of 33 to 42 minutes for the swim.
…and got very over-excited at getting my wetsuit off without the usual trigger into hamstring or calf cramps from the cold, per every other year except one, and hearing the shouts of my girlfriend Carolin and great friend Kristian visiting from New York.
The beautiful 18 mile bike ride felt really strong (1h 8 mins), snaking along our stunning coastline, with Bay views and then the expanse of the Pacific, and out around Golden Gate park.
But my run was the slowest yet! The legs just felt more leaden than I remember in the race – straight off a lot of sharp climbs on the bike – and the voice of “dang it, I’m ageing” kept coming to mind!
Though somehow my sand ladder time – two hundred sand steps, set into a cliff around mile 6 – was the second quickest of my seven Alcatrazes, perhaps from taking it really easy on the beach run just before. Below a pic of the sand ladder from a clear morning a few days before…
…on the finishing straight…
…and moments later…”it’s better to stand up”, they told me in the finishing area…(thanks!).
In all, and especially with the fundraising result, it felt great to return the race this year.
And after the initial five minutes of the swim where you always think “what am I doing, never again…”! I’m twitching at the idea of keeping Alcatraz a Spring ritual.
Thank you again!
Beer garden pic with local Irish training buddy Brian O’Cuiv.
P.S. With special thanks for the early morning support and all the photos above from my wonderful girlfriend Carolin (of Germany and USA) and visiting great friend Kristian this week, from Brooklyn New York.
