Dear Linc,

Have no fear. After my little outpouring of angst, coming home was exactly what I needed. I had rented a documentary that I never got around to watching, and Clara and her fiance joined me in doing just that. Those microwaved burritos also were pretty decent, and I still had a bag of tortilla chips lying around so that was a nice plus.

The documentary was Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story. It was really good, and was as insightful as it was funny. Baseball-playing Jews sure know how to be witty. Also, Hank Greenberg only went to college for a semester. He did pretty well as a baseball player, I’ve heard. (I am being facetious, of course.) Later on, when he went on to manage the Indians, he had to make the tough decision of letting go of Al Rosen. Knowing this eventuality, Rosen, according to the documentary, pursued the stock market and later became an MLB executive. I read up on him on Wikipedia and I didn’t even know that he would also become head of the Giants!

I felt bad for making fun of you for investing in that tech company. That was just me bearing sour grapes over progress — of course tech is the wave of the future, it’s just that society these days is laboring so painfully to birth the future that anything that isn’t tech gets sacrificed and so easily left behind to labeled as the past. Like, you know, books — which is the industry that I have decided to work in even knowing that they are in a very precarious state these days. Anyway, if going back to college isn’t right for you, then that’s OK. There’s a taboo in the shadow of all the politicians, educators, and public service announcements: college isn’t for everybody. There are good people, there are good and smart people, who never make it through or who never went at all yet still made their way in life.

After we watched the documentary, I took a little nightcap in the form of some indulgent YouTube fun. For some reason that I can’t explain, I was in the mood to revisit the time on one of my favorite soap operas when one of my favorite characters performed a rendition of “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus. Maybe my brain is wired to resort to sugary pop culture whenever I feel bad. Go ahead and make fun of me not just for liking pop music by the likes of Miley Cyrus, but the additional saccharine heap of pop music and soap operas. At least I know how to pick myself up.

Joe