Status Check

It's February in Atlanta. Periods of cold alternating with drenching rains and temperatures in the 50's. Work continues--overseeing compliance and defense of certain public responsibilities. The Mrs. continues to see her boyfriend, who's wife died of cancer at the beginning of last summer. D-1 is bored with her confinement but making do. D-2 is moving on with her life, teaming up with a firefighter and moving out of the apartment I've provided the last two and a half years. The Diva graduated from high school last May, and is enrolled in college. She gets along terrifically with her father, and seeks nothing to do with her mother. And me? I'm still eyeing the field, which diminishes constantly. I don't seem to qualify as "daddy" material any more. Life rolls on. I'm used to a much faster pace but am constrained by the lives of those around me. It's challenging making oneself 'relevant' in a world that relegates you to a 'guy in the background' status. I mentor young professionals just starting out; offer humor and observations to those a little older. It's so terribly odd to have such a wealth of experience but understand those at the other end of life's pipeline have to experience it themselves or figure it out for themselves. But there's a certain freedom with that. I'm not responsible for them. My quandry is, what the hell do I do with the next 20 years of my life?