Kind of surprising, to me anyway.

Had I spent the past two years sitting in an Iranian prison, for hiking someplace that perhaps in retrospect was not the best chosen path, I like to think I'd have spent an awful lot of my mental time in solitude planning what I'd be doing first, once I was again free...

Shane Bauer of Minnesota though, appears to be still mulling his future plans:

Two weeks after walking out of an Iranian prison, Shane Bauer is still adapting to freedom - and trying to figure out what to do with it.

Bauer and his fiancee, Sarah Shourd, were spending time this week at his mother's rural Minnesota home, taking long walks, singing songs by a fire and cooking meals together. They aren't spending a lot of time talking about the time Shane lost to prison, Shane's mother, Cindy Hickey, said.

"His biggest task is not to get too overwhelmed with things to do and trying to enjoy the simple fact that he's free," Hickey said Tuesday.
...
Bauer, a freelance journalist, grew up in Onamia, Minn., and Fattal, an environmental activist, is from Elkins Park, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb.
...
Hickey said her son was recovering from anemia and an ulcer, but he was "not as gaunt" as he had been. On Tuesday, he went out in the morning for a three-mile run, she said.

Bauer proposed to Shourd while both were in prison. Asked whether the couple had firmed up wedding plans, Hickey said no.

They have been exploring their options for when they will speak in detail about the imprisonment, Hickey said.

She said Bauer has described periods in prison where he felt like he was losing time, but he doesn't appear to be angry.

"Shane has ambition, he has voice, he wants to continue doing things for other people," she said. "He wants to take this experience and do something positive."

Perhaps, they're just waiting for the "offers" to roll in, and evaluating their future lives based on that. (And singing songs together 'round the campfire in the meantime...)

Me though?
I like to think I'd have more concrete plans for my remaining life, beyond that episode. Amanda Knox too -- will her life simply be "the Imprisonment, and beyond..." now?

Like with fame perhaps,
I'd sure hate to miss out on the day-to-day activities of regular life. The planning, the doing, the getting the job done, however you define your life's work. I see Shane "wants to continue doing things for other people."

I like to think I'm as generous and giving as the next guy, but perhaps, and this might just be the isolatoe (see here and here) in me, a streak of self-selfishness is what somewhat separates those of us who like to suck the marrow from the bare bones of freedom, from those who like to wait, evaluate offers, and dedicate their tomorrows to "continue helping others."

Nttawwt, it's just ... there's an awful lot more, and something to be said, for just practicing independence and savoring it daily.

Happy hump day.
Working here -- 7:30 a.m. county executive board meeting (I think a 2+ hours numbers meeting scheduled at that time is more to make one swallow the numbers unquestioningly, perhaps? Especially when the tax levy has to be established Today! And I'm one of the younger ones in attendance, myself...), but we'll get several stories for next week's paper done by week's end, so it all adds up, I suppose.