>I am actually considering several career directions, including NFPs. I am involved with a couple already, in leadership positions -- youth soccer and a soup kitchen on the north side of Chicago. But the "What does it pay?" question hasn't gone away. I have to support two households and am barely scraping by as it is. I can't just blithely kiss that corporate paycheck goodbye and go off to save the f*n whales. Not without hurting my daughters in a direct way, and I wouldn't do that in a million years. They are not going to school in Wal-Mart clothes the other girls snicker at as long as I have a pulse and a gainful skill.
>
>Life sucks sometimes, doesn't it?

Always, pretty much.

Actually, real life, when it sucks, sucks a whole lot worse than high school ever thought of sucking. People who get everything they want and don't learn fortitude at an early age tend to have problems their whole lives. I wore K-Mart clothes in school, on top of which I was a pudgy AV nerd. I didn't just have people making fun of me; I had strangers walking up to me in the hall and slugging me. I got tough as a result of those experiences.

Anyway--apples aren't oranges. It sounds like you're where you need to be, given your priorities. But the big-time corporate world is never going to be full of other-directed visionaries. So you collects your money and you makes your choice.

>I had an interesting conversation last week with Whil Hentzen, aka The World's Angriest FoxPro Developer <g>. We started out talking about running, of all things. Steve Prefontaine. Whil's still got his enthusiasm and energy, five kids, on the go all the time. He is going through the same thing we all are -- what's next?

I admire Whil quite a bit.

Ken Dibble
www.stic-cil.org