Testing the Leviathan

On June 2nd, the company that employs me will have shuffled me off the corporate coile. Meaning, of course, I will have been laid off of my position.  The company's decision was an act born of logical necessity, being born of a need for efficiency and balanced sheets.  The corporation, being in a strong and competitive industry, bestowed upon me the boon of a generous severance.  This, along with years of moderate, but by no means fanatical, financial prudence allow me the luxury of a year's sabbatical.

This year will be one of experimentation in freedom.  It will be borne upon a motorcycle, one I have owned for fourteen years.  Gone will be the urban condominium.  Gone will be the discipline of the forty-plus hour work week.  Gone will be the familiar sights and sounds that have occupied me these seven years in Boston.

Without the standard constraints that, perhaps, fill the requirements of the social contract, it remains to be seen if a meaning will be found to fill the days.  Arguably, the experience of life itself, the interaction with others and the new, will bring an inherent satisfaction.  However, without the standard immediate authorities to answer to, will there be a descent into the debauched?  Will the veneer of civilization, and associated behaviors, be slowly shed, leaving a destiny that will be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short?  Frankly, a destiny exciting, luxurious, pleasing, and short would not necessarily be the worst outcome and may prove a powerful siren's song to be danced to on the way to being cast upon the rocks.

It must be first things first, as all mobility constraints must be divested.  Material goods will need to be reduced to that which can be carried on the back of a motorcycle.  Once completed, perhaps over the course of a month and a half, the journey will begin.

A journey south, followed by west, will be in store as familial connections will be made before the journey into the wilderness, urban and otherwise.  Once the reunion with my parents and visitation with my brother's family is complete, the plan is to head further west, eventually settling in Las Vegas.

There will be a three month stay in the settlement colloquially referred to as Sin City.  There I will ply my trade as a poker player to taste a more irresponsible lifestyle that I have enjoyed on a part time basis for 20 years.

Will the year end well?  It remains to be seen.  Will I bleed off financial resources when thrown off of the corporate teat?  Will I be able to leverage my finances into a level of sustainability, or growth, which will allow my sojourn into the unfettered life continue unabated for the foreseeable future?  If so, will I be able to maintain an admirable level of grace and nobility?  Or, will I fall into the bestial, and be found, at the end of a period of ever increasing debauchery, lifeless, face down in a tub of baby oil, while fully shorn and well-greased capuchins scream at me from the light fixtures above?