It’s been a strange journey, folks. I wish I could tell you what I’ve been doing, but no dice. Just wanted to let anyone who still cares know that I’m alive and kicking and continuing my ratty ways.
That, and to sort of reflect on what happens when you become a big shot. Here at the Rat Site, we’ve always tried to give good advice, and I sincerely hope that everyone who visits goes away with the tools for success.
I guess I got into succeeding because I was sick of being poor. Mission accomplished, now watch this drive! But even if that was the top-line goal, there’s always more to the story. You may believe, as I suppose I did, that by doing it, you will get people to look at you in a different way, defer to your opinions, see you in a different light. And, truth be told, you totally will! It’s just that this power only works on your professional network. And that’s mostly a bunch of people that you don’t really care about. They might matter a lot to your livelihood, but not to your emotional life.
To the people you really care about, you’ll never be much bigger or much smaller than you were before. It’s actually kind of crazy how much homeostasis there is in how the people close to you see you. In your office, CEOs might tremble beneath your lash. At home, at your religious congregation, to your family, you will pretty much be the same schmuck you always were.
There’s an odd comfort in this, but only up to a point. Once your relationships are baked in, they’re somewhat resistant to change. You’ll always be a spouse, a child, a parent, a sibling, whatever else. And those relationships tend to be pretty sticky; your parents will always see you as a kid to some degree, but your brother can’t fire you (unless you work for a certain Japanese printer company.)
But this comfort only goes so far, because it’s predicated on you continually succeeding in your role: providing everything that your dependents can’t furnish for themselves. And if you stop winning, you can lose those relationships, and it will be your fault.
Ruminating on this explains why I’m blogging tonight. Much as I (and you) might wish it otherwise, every accomplishment, every milestone comes with a carrying cost. After you’ve worked a few miracles, people come to expect it, and to blame you if you can’t deliver.
So that’s the relevance to this blog’s theme and why I’m returning to blogging for tonight. Because at the end of the day, everything that you care about is riding on how well you’re ratfacing. You can’t win, but you can certainly lose, and your daily grind earns you, at best, the right to keep playing for one more day. It’s terrible, but it beats the alternative, so what are you waiting for?
The Rat-faced Man 
