Sightseeing [Part 1]

By any definition, Charlie Lester was a successful fellow. After too many years as a successful accountant at a big firm, he had quit his job and struck out on his own, twelve months ago. He wanted a better life for himself and his family. A year later, things were going well for him and it looked like he has going to get just that.

On this particular afternoon, he couldn't concentrate on the computer screen in front of him. He had tried six times to locate the cause of an error in the books, with little success. He experienced mental gridlock and although it was only 5 pm, he decided to try again in the morning. He had put in long hours for a year and he felt worn out. After he cleared his desk and packed his briefcase, he got up to go home to his family.

Sarah Winslow, his administrative assistant, seemed surprised to see him leaving before six pm. She always put in as many hours as it took to get the work out, without complaint. He appreciated that and told her to wrap things up and go home early today. What still needed to be done would be there in the morning waiting for the two of them.

Lately, Charlie had the sense that something was missing in his life. He couldn't exactly pinpoint what that something was. However, he knew that he had lost that initial excitement he had experienced when he had set up his own company. Now, the wonderful challenge had become just work, pretty much the same from day to day.

The main reason he had left the firm was that he wanted to spend more time with his family. After leaving, he had discovered that he was spending more time working for himself than when he was working for someone else.

As he walked to his car, he knew that things were not working out as he thought they would. Something was wrong with this picture. But what?

To be continued...

The Adventure Begins

Everyone of us is a JourneyMan. We are born. We navigate the difficult journey of life. At some point our life comes to an end. Each of us has a story to tell.

In the stories, poems and other short pieces which will appear in this blog, we will explore different slices of life to discover what really happens out there in the world. We will intrude into the hidden moments in the lives of people we don't know and have never met. If we can look upon their experiences with compassion and objectivity, perhaps we can begin to get a sense of the impact of the events in their lives on each person. And maybe the world outside will even begin to make a little more sense to us. Strangely, we are better able to understand how the world works in the story of one person than in the history of what happened collectively to six million people.

David Merrick, the well-known Broadway producer, wrote, "The best [song] lyrics are always the simple ones; and a capacity for meaningful simplicity [demands] great talent." That is no less true for anyone who aspires to be a wordsmith. The trademark of my stories will be brevity and meaningful simplicity, as time is a scarce commodity in the age of information and insights which touch our very soul even scarcer.

So the journey begins. I will spin the tales as they come to me. Let me know if you are enjoying these modest attempts to peer into usually hidden corners of the world. Let me hear from you if you do.

Kindest regards,

Howard Fireman