Author shines spotlight on two local men's choices
Carl Kurlander and Rick Olson are both 43 and Pittsburgh natives.
That, and blondish hair, would seem to be about all they have in common. Kurlander teaches English at the University of Pittsburgh; Olson is a long-distance truck driver for the Schneider National Bulk Carriers terminal in Coraopolis. Kurlander wrote the screenplay for the movie "St. Elmo's Fire"; Olson used to write legal briefs as an attorney.
The way they live their lives, however, is similar. Both men have found the sort of peace of mind in their respective careers that makes them exceptions to Henry David Thoreau's observation that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
Kurlander and Olson are profiled in Po Bronson's best-selling "What Should I Do with My Life?" (Random House, $24.95). They both feel they are part of something larger than their own stories.
"I often tell people that talking to Po Bronson was faster and cheaper than therapy," jokes Kurlander, who left Hollywood to return to Pittsburgh to find his own writing voice again.
That couldn't have been an easy decision. After "St. Elmo's Fire," Kurlander became friendly with the film's director, Joel Schumacher. He went out for sushi with actress Andie McDowell and had promised her that when the film wrapped, he would move back to Pittsburgh and write short stories.
It took him 17 years to live up to his vow. Hollywood's lure proved to be irresistible as Kurlander established himself. He lived in a house above Sunset Plaza in Hollywood, where his next-door neighbors were David Schwimmer and Richard Simmons. "Saved by the Bell," one of the projects he worked on, was financially lucrative.
A lost credit card turned out to be Kurlander's catalyst of change. He had just made a donation to his high school alma mater, Shady Side Academy. When he e-mailed the school to notify them, a woman there noticed he worked in Hollywood. She knew someone at Pitt who was looking to replace an English teacher going on sabbatical, and a chain of events was set in motion that would enable him to finally live up to the promise he made to McDowell.
Bronson's decision to interview him for his book fortified Kurlander's sense that he had made the right decision.
"Po made it very conspicuous; he shined a spotlight on what I do," Kurlander says. "One of the great things he did was reinforce that to my wife. Because, in terms of actual work, no one really knows what a writer does."
Kurlander now raves about his position at Pitt, and the opportunity to work with fellow writers and teachers including Dave Bartholomae, Lynn Emanuel and Chuck Kinder, and to finally begin to write his own stories.
"It was very strange, but I'm a very lucky guy to have met Po," he says, noting that Bronson helped make his transition easier. "When he actually came here and spent the day, came to my class, that was a thrilling moment for me."
Olson didn't need affirmation from anyone. Unlike Kurlander, who sought out Bronson, Olson's name had been passed along to Bronson via a friend who had heard about the project. The soft-spoken Greenfield resident wasn't sure what to make of it when Bronson contacted him and arranged to come to Pittsburgh.
"I really didn't know who he was," Olson says. "To me, he was just some guy from California who flew out."
Olson didn't feel he had done anything remarkable except find peace of mind. His job as a lawyer with a Downtown law firm was the epitome of a stress-filled existence. But he accepted it until, one day, he and his stepson, Patrick, went sightseeing on Mt. Washington. Patrick began asking questions and pointing out landmarks that Olson had never taken the time to notice.
"I was sort of going through the motions as far as answering Patrick's questions," he says. "I'd listen to what he was saying and try to concentrate on his questions, but I was thinking about so many different things at the same time, he never got my undivided attention. What made that day neat was, for some reason, I began to really start listening to him. I began to focus on him 100 percent."
It wasn't until Olson shattered his ankle during a game of pickup ice hockey that he found the window of opportunity that would really change his life. Olson's injury meant he was going to be laid up for eight months. When the practice of law became too much, he had always told people he would rather drive a truck.
During his recuperation, he decided he would do just that.
"When I was going to college and law school, I had driven a truck for a moving company," he says. "You'll hear people say that the road gets in your blood. ... When the opportunity with Schneider came up, I decided there was no time like the present. I had to find out if this is what I really wanted to do."
It was. From the first time Olson took to the road, he found himself at peace with his decision. He had no one hovering over him, no one telling him what do. He would be given a load of a liquid chemical and told to be at his destination by a certain time. What route he took, when he stopped to sleep or eat, was left up to him.
In "What Should I Do with My Life?" Bronson calls Olson a great philosopher. He writes that Olson didn't realize how "eloquent he sounded. He'd spent all that time alone in his truck -- driving, being in the moment, noticing the road, the view, the beauty of the country -- and somehow, because of that, when it came time to talk, these articulate words spun from his lips."
Olson laughs when he's reminded of Bronson's words. In college, he had a double major in philosophy and political science. All he could think of doing with that knowledge was to go to law school.
But now, people want to hear his story because he walked away from that.
"It's difficult for me to hear people talking about how fascinating this is, because it's just my life," he says. "I just made the decision and did the things that made sense at the time. In retrospect, people are saying it's fascinating. But that's also the extent that it goes back to Patrick, because the decisions that I made ultimately came back to what works the best for he and I."
