The Sanitary Sewer of Unemployment

By Christopher Cudworth

See that photo above? It’s a Sanitary Sewer cover on a neighborhood street. The term “sanitary sewer” is an oxymoron if you think about it. Or a euphemism, which is just as bad.

The sewer lid also a quirky symbol for unemployment. Because underneath the lid is all the bad shit you can think about yourself if you let someone dictate your worth and value in this world. The lid itself is your personal character and brand–no matter how dinged up it may be. So shine it a little.

Beyond all that is our running and riding, the literal and symbolic act of keeping ourselves moving despite fears and beliefs that can lock us into place, trip us up with tarsnakes, and cost you life, home and family.

So don’t let it happen. You really can run and ride yourself over all that when you find yourself unemployed.

Young and impressionable

The first time I was technically unemployed was the spring of 1983. My career to that point was off to a decent start, three years out of college and working for an investment firm as a graphic designer in marketing. Working in my “major” and learning the ways of the business world.

The investment firm was a relative startup that grew to be sold to Xerox for $400M. Having worked for a couple years in the Chicago and Naperville offices, the company decided to consolidate its marketing team in Philadelphia. One day the CEO, the man who’d hired me, walked in and said. “We’re moving you to Philly this August.” It was June.

But in less than 6 months after moving to Philly, things had gone sour for the marketing group. I recall a conversation while riding in on the train one morning with one of the top salesman in the Wholesale group, who turned to me and said, “What are you guys doing, anyway? We’re not getting anything we need to sell. If you keep this up, you’ll all be gone.” He was more than prophetic.

Our Marketing VP leader was an effete Easterner who believed quite a bit in marketing theory but seemed to know very little about marketing practice. He also might have been sleeping with the Assistant VP. And as we all know, distractions can get in the way of performance, and the other way around.

Eventually the company simply fired the whole department. Lock, stock and barrel. Gave us all severance checks and said “Bye bye.”

But before moving home, I grabbed some of that severance money and took off on a trip down the Atlantic Seaboard to Assateague Island, the wildest place in the world I could find. I went for long solo runs on the wave rocked beaches. Shed clothes and went swimming in the ocean with watched other crazy hippy couples making love in the mist. Ran headlong naked and barefoot trying to regain a sense of self in the face of so the personal chaos.

The trip worked short-term wonders. Then I moved back to Chicago and refused to take another job for a while. Just ran and ran and ran, trying to get to be the best I could. And I did. But that’s a tale for another day.

Dealing with the no fun factor

But the fact always remains, being unemployed is generally no fun. Perhaps people with big severance packages and sources of other income can just relax and search for a job. Or call up a rich uncle and go work for the family business a few months till things pan out. But for most of the rest of the world, being out of work is a daily path of anxiety and dread. It strains relationships and bank accounts. Makes you testy and nervous and desperate feeling, all at once.

But I have to tell you, my early experiment in being unemployed has helped, over the years, whenever job loss or circumstance demanded it. I have used running and riding to keep sanity, wick off stress, gain perspective and maintain self esteem. Running and riding help you ride over the sewer lids of your own worst fears.

Running and riding have allowed me to think, to regain creative perspective, to solve problems and release anger. Running and riding have taught me that keeping yourself in shape is the same thing as keeping your hopes alive.

Persistence and perseverence

The important thing when going through unemployment is to be persistent, faithful and aware of the many things you need to do to find a job. Especially networking. Making yourself aware.

It has happened like lightning before, on the basis of a single phone call. Other times it has taken months.

But that summer of 1983 did teach me important skills in how to manage the mind and not let yourself feel like less of a person because someone else determined they no longer need you. Despite all the world says, you are loved, if you know where to look. And how to run. And how to ride. Because these things open our minds to our mission. Which is living well in all circumstance.

Despite the sewer lids.