Creatures of habit.  I am, — no question about it.  Yesterday I walked away.  I left a place where I have worked daily, departing from my role as owner of a company, the chief problem solver.  The wind-down has been gradual, beginning six months ago.  After a day of labor to tear down the office, disconnect computers, and many trips to the trash bin, the deed is done.  There is always a lot that ought to be thrown away, upon a change of this scale.  What to throw away and what to keep?  The emotional side of the matter is what’s difficult.  I placed six bankers boxes of the most recent years of financials in my vehicle.  Those boxes, I would happily heave into the dumpster if I could.  There’s the matter of tax/legal liability, and I must keep the records for the immediate future.

My final act before walking through the door for the last time, was to hand my key over to my partner, who will return the keys to our landlord.  I left with the precious, the priceless memories of companionship with coworkers, conversations with customers, the years of earning-a-living by the fair exchange of a service for adequate compensation.  No regrets.

What now?  Retirement, release from the press of earning income, will allow me to take the measure of great changes that are occurring in our way-of-life in this country.  I will read more and write more.

My better judgment tells me with increasing insistence, this country belongs in the main to a few uber-wealthy.  The majority have no real voice to influence policy; and the common good is abandoned in a frenzy of profit mindedness.  Such economic-mindedness spreads, a return on investment viewpoint, a winner-take-all attitude that produces lots of “losers.”

Wendy Brown describes the sea change I have observed and experienced approaching for the past few years.

Market values
are crowding out all others,
and that valuable, precious, or sacred things
including democracy itself
are increasingly and inappropriately
subjected to markets…..
How the neoliberal triumph of
homo oeconomicus
as the exhaustive figure of the human
as undermining democratic practices
and a democratic imagery
by vanquishing the subject
that governs itself through moral autonomy
and governs with others through popular sovereignty.

Excerpt Undoing the Demos Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution
By Wendy Brown p. 79

The lyric lines from the great rock anthem by White Snake come to mind. The poetry captures my state of heart, as I drive away into a setting sun.

Here I go again on my own
Goin’ down the only road I’ve ever known
Like a drifter I was born to walk alone
And I’ve made up my mind
I ain’t wasting no more time

But here I go again
Here I go again