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Tribute Week - The Fiedlers

By Josh Brown ⋅ April 29, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Day of Tribute Week. We raised a glass to the Sharps yesterday. Today we pour a tall one for our friends the Fiedlers, Nick & Leslie.

When it comes to living the dream . . . it doesn’t get any better than these dreamers.

I’ll be honest, out of all my friends, I get the envious towards the Fiedlers. Because they defy convention. They reject the norm. And do what they want to do when they want to. Some might call it selfish. I call it daring. They’ve never worked at a job they didn’t like. And they’re not afraid to move on when things get stagnant. Pragmaticism is their nemesis.

When everybody would expect them to settle in, get a solid job, and start popping babies out . . . they decide to sell everything they have, hop a plane for a country they’ve never been, and find work where they can. It may last a few weeks. It may last a few years. But they are riding out the experiment until the train ends. And when it does . . . they’ll take on another experiment.

I can’t tell you how encouraging it is to me to follow the lives of the Fiedlers. When I get worn down with a week of clients, phone calls, and taxes it’s really easy for me to think about jumping ship and going and getting a corporate job. But it’s not me. And I gotta be me. The Fiedlers remind me of that.

They are who they are and they’re doing it. They’re living it. They’re grabbing lives by the bronze ones and seizing the day. As cheesy as it is, I think of Dead Poets Society every time I think of the Fiedlers. And they are a constant reminder to me to be myself and do what I do best. Even when other people frown upon it or don’t think it’s conventional.