Suddenly Dropping Out

I wonder what it would be like to drop out of this American society very suddenly...just sell stuff fast, get an airplance ticket and go...or maybe drive south after getting rid of everything. That is so appealing to me, but I know my wife would never agree to it. But it's just so amazingly appealing. I've never done anything quite so abrupt...I've always wanted to.

Here's my vision of doing it...in the slower, Geezerly way. I would put my house on the market. Quietly, of course. Wouldn't announce it to friends, acquaintences, staff, etc....just get an agent to list it. Simulataneously, I'd look at how I could get client work covered in my absence...and probably would look at scheduling things so that my departure would correspond to the end of their fiscal years, etc. I'd have to make it correspond to the end of my office lease, of course, and I would have to have a plan in place to vacate the premises, get rid of enormous volumes of furniture, files, chairs, etc. It would have to be a well-orchestrated plan.

Then, at the appointed hour, I would announce to the world that "I'm outta here!" I'd have to set it up, of course, to pay staff for a while to absorb some of the shock and I'd have to ensure that clients would be able to keep clicking along. But I'd love to do it...set it up carefully, then, SWOOOOSH! Done! Off to Mexico, Chile, Argentina...or maybe Nova Scotia in summers, as I do love Nova Scotia.

Being completely without ties wouldn'd do for me, of course. I'll need my wife, my family, and a tiny, tiny circle of friends or acquaintences, as anchors. But mostly my wife and my siblings...everything else would take care of itself. Here I am, at 52, and I've yet to make my lifelong friend. I saw a program last night on cable that addressed a car-crazy guy who had donated his kidney to his best friend, who repaid him by having his "ride" totally jazzed. I have no such friends. If a family member needs a kidney, call me. I am somewhat reluctant to give one to a "friend."

Back to dropping out. I wonder if it's possible to do a "test" drop-out? You know, disappear briefly, live a wild and crazy life of absolute freedom, then come back and reintegrate? Maybe I'll pursue that. I don't want to completely screw up the works. Living my remaining years as a homeless beggar has very little appeal. It would really piss-off my wife. She might kill me with a dull butcher knife.

So, there you are. My "plans" in a nutshell. Do something, sometime, somewhere, to experience something. Very clear, don't you think?