The eternal search for Else By Warren Bluhm News-Chronicle A neighbor walks past while I'm emptying the grass bag on the lawn mower. It's a beautiful summer weekend morning. "It feels good to be working," he calls over. "It does," I admit. "It beats sitting at a desk all day." Over the whir of the mower, I start to wonder if my joy of working in the sun has something to do with my indoor imprisonment on weekdays. If my full-time job was roofing or building roads, would it feel this good to be working outside? Or is the feeling related to how mowing the lawn is outside of my work-a-day routine? It seems no matter what we're doing, a part of us yearns to be doing something else. I could probably develop it into a self-help book and market myself around the TV talk shows with this theory - we'll call it "The Eternal Search for Else." It sure seems to be true in my life. I started out in radio news and thought it might be fun to be a disc jockey. For a time I got to be a DJ and found myself reading and listening to the news more. When I was a news writer, I would go home and listen to music. When I was a disc jockey, I would go home and read or write. Anything to be doing something Else. Playing the guitar and writing songs has always been a little hobby of mine. I've also thought it would be fun to write The Great American Novel. When I was in radio and surrounded by music, I concentrated on the novel. Now that I'm surrounded by prose, of course it's the music that draws me out at home. Whatever goes on at work, when I get home I want to do something Else. The urge for Else is what keeps our economy going, most likely. People who are tired of what they're doing today are tomorrow's fresh blood at other jobs, or tomorrow's innovator in their existing jobs. On the other hand, there is a value in people who love what they're doing so much that they do it forever. The other day we met Bob Kayser and his Irish setter, Rusty. Kayser has been with the Peninsula Players for 32 years, the last 19 years as the master gardener who makes sure the Theater in the Garden lives up to its magical legend. The garden benefits from the loving touch of someone who isn't distracted by the lure of Else. The restless urge might be a natural part of life, but it's not always healthy, either. Look at the marriages ruined because one partner or the other thought it might be fun to try someone Else. But most of the progress we've made through the years has been because someone "thought outside of the box," looked at the status quo and said, "There must be something Else we can do about this." I can see the book unfolding now: Chapters will focus on Something Else, Someone Else, Somewhere Else, Somehow Else, the Joy of Staying Put, When It's Time to Search for Else ... But just as you can learn everything you need to know about "Everything I Know I Learned in Kindergarten" by reading the back cover of the book, I'll save you the trouble of reading my book (and spare me the trouble of writing it) by boiling it down to a familiar cliche: The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. And as my neighbor heads back to his own lawn, I realize that it's true. Still, as I rev the mower back up, my own lawn starts to feel perfectly adequate. It's fun to be walking around after five days parked in front of a computer. On the other hand, after a few hours of yardwork, it also would be a relief to be doing something Else ... Warren Bluhm is editor of the Door County Advocate. Contact him at 920-743-3321 or [email protected]