Becoming a real life hero

For those of you reading this who have been following my blog of late { and there must be a few of you out there cos I'm seeing feedback and extra hits on my counter } then you will be aware that after coming back from Colombia I've been a changed man.

I was thinking of just switching jobs and taking a different city job to try and get away from the rubbish and politics that surrounds my normal working life.

However, it then occurred to me that my office is no worse than most other offices, and indeed quite a bit better than some, so to simply switch my current desk for one in a different London office is not really going to made a blind bit of different.

Personally, I believe that I am destined for more than what I have been doing with the last 30 years of my life, almost as if it has just been a prelude to my REAL life, and the kind of person I imagine myself to be is much more a doer than a thinker.

Now it maybe that I am just trying to write something to look cool, or then again it may be just plain stupid, but after a decade of being an accountant { and part time poet / DIY repair man and overall good-guy to my nearest & dearest } I feel that I would much rather be out saving something, saving anything, than just helping to amass a huge pile of A$ lever-arched folders of the red, blue and yellow variety.

Money has never held me in awe of its power or ability to influence things, but I do accept that it is needed to do almost anything these days.

But being an accountant ... I mean, really ... what earthly good am I doing anyone by sitting at a desk, getting steadily fatter and older, bashing out numbers on a keyboard day-in day-out?

Soooooooooooooooooooo - how about I swap my solar powered calculator for some strong walking boots and then go out into the real world and see what good I can do.


I love to help people, I enjoy working with my hands, I get a thrill out of seeing a visible reward for my efforts, the outdoors has a strong pull for me, I cannot get enough of travel, I get bored easily doing the same thing and I feel extremely guilty for not doing more towards the many flora / fauna conservation causes that I strongly agree with.

So, right at this moment, there is nothing in life that I would rather do that try to settle things at home and then go off gallivanting around the world, tending to elderly elephants, planting trees, unearthing lost archaeological treasures, saving sea turtles, rebuilding tsunami wrecked villages and teaching basic English in third world countries.

It may seem cliche, it may be cliche, but I'm not doing this for the author rights or to get the girl { though if they both come then it would be a definite welcome added bonus }, I am doing this as I feel that I am going slightly mad and the thought of resigning myself to another decade of office tedium will finish me off completely.

However, it seems that every day people abroad are getting kidnapped in far flung places, and so I will have to plan and time my choice of volunteering work very carefully. After all, a dead peacekeeper is no good to anyone!

I will also not want to lose my house, my pension or the chance of getting a job when I come back, so I will have to save lots this year and make plenty of arrangements to cover for the time while I am away and for the most likely emergencies that would force me to come back prematurely.