It has been a year and nine months since I left my job as an energy reporter at the Post-Gazette. Since then, I have read very little about energy. Just now, while flipping through the current issue of The Economist, I came across a story about how financial firms that engage in energy trading are beginning to resist fines from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
And I read it. Just out of interest. Just for fun.
And it was interesting, and it was fun, to read about FERC, and Constellation Energy, and regional transmission organizations.
Which makes me feel that I could get back into energy reporting as a freelancer. Which would help me to feel like that all the relationships I established within the industry during my time at the PG, and all that I learned, would not be going totally to waste.
I need to make better use of all the stuff that has accumulated in my brain during my 60 years on this rock. Freelance energy reporting might be a good start. In fact, writing about energy on Homewood Nation might be the best start.
Memo to myself: generate a list of energy-related, Homewood-based story ideas.
**************
Meanwhile, I am going to invent a phrase: self-mining.
Self-mining means digging into oneself and extracting value from everything that one finds. Or at least, digging into oneself with that intention.
The value may be in lessons learned. The value may be in something marketable. The value may be in relationships forgotten, but renewable. At the core of self-mining is that the proposition that it's all worth something, somehow. Self-mining is first and foremost about honoring one's life.
I want to excel at self-mining. I mean, it wouldn't do for the guy who invented the term to suck at it, right?
So here's a question for me to work with: What parts of my life have I tended to disregard or to think little of, and how might they be valuable?
The answers of the moment are "energy journalism" and "I could resume it as a freelancer."
It will be interesting to see what other answers I come up with.
What about you? What experiences, skills, relationships, knowledge are you sitting on that you haven't used lately?
And I read it. Just out of interest. Just for fun.
And it was interesting, and it was fun, to read about FERC, and Constellation Energy, and regional transmission organizations.
Which makes me feel that I could get back into energy reporting as a freelancer. Which would help me to feel like that all the relationships I established within the industry during my time at the PG, and all that I learned, would not be going totally to waste.
I need to make better use of all the stuff that has accumulated in my brain during my 60 years on this rock. Freelance energy reporting might be a good start. In fact, writing about energy on Homewood Nation might be the best start.
Memo to myself: generate a list of energy-related, Homewood-based story ideas.
**************
Meanwhile, I am going to invent a phrase: self-mining.
Self-mining means digging into oneself and extracting value from everything that one finds. Or at least, digging into oneself with that intention.
The value may be in lessons learned. The value may be in something marketable. The value may be in relationships forgotten, but renewable. At the core of self-mining is that the proposition that it's all worth something, somehow. Self-mining is first and foremost about honoring one's life.
I want to excel at self-mining. I mean, it wouldn't do for the guy who invented the term to suck at it, right?
So here's a question for me to work with: What parts of my life have I tended to disregard or to think little of, and how might they be valuable?
The answers of the moment are "energy journalism" and "I could resume it as a freelancer."
It will be interesting to see what other answers I come up with.
What about you? What experiences, skills, relationships, knowledge are you sitting on that you haven't used lately?
No comments:
Post a Comment