Mea culpa, felix culpa

Not so long ago, I received an email from a correspondent unknown to me in which I was sternly taken to task for the cavalier title of this blog.

The gist?:

Unemployed at last? What kind of spoilt ninny would so blithely, so irresponsibly trumpet such a statement? Who seeks to be unemployed? And what gross insensitivity to the plight of those seeking employment and yet unable to find it! You should be ashamed of yourself, young lady, etc, etc.

Who and what indeed!

(Heaves a heaving sigh)

The words ‘Unemployed at last!’ open the novel Such is Life by Tom Collins (or Joseph Furphy, as you will). Over coffee in Darlinghurst in early 2007, the line ‘Unemployed at last!’ was, within my hearing, designated the greatest first line in Australian literature by a storied sage who travels as the Don. This not being the first time I had plundered the Don’s ample stores of wit and classificatory nous, I borrowed the line so stamped with the imprimatur of great authority with little compunction. The slightly obnoxious bent of the title is thus, I hope, utterly redeemed by its exemplary lineage: Ozlit, the Don, Daaaahlinghurst.

It must be added that my departure from the bonds of a career which was whittling my robust and merry spirit into something bitter and dusty is not so distant; the spry tone of the exclamation does capture, almost perfectly, my ongoing glee at finding myself unleashed from a lifetime of despair up there in the tower.