To do, or not to do? That really is the question. So much has happened and it seems that unlike Ren and Stimpy we ARE affected by the journey. Our heads did appear to explode.
Everyone I speak to is exhausted, barely had the energy to crawl out of the pajamas they’d been in for days when it was time to Go Back To Work, Now. Planning? Not so much. Control? An old idea that popped like a soap bubble.
It takes a fair amount of fortitude to keep riding the wave, Gentle Reader. It is true that we’re here to learn. Understanding that means we don’t take things as personally as we used to: either you pass the course or you retake it, no harm no foul in the INCREDIBLY LONG RUN. In the RIGHT NOW SHORT RUN? Well, St. Augustine, who I’ve never much cared for, said the reward of patience is patience, and that is where we find ourselves in the short run. Being patient.
At times like these all you can do is keep breathing and paying attention. Unlearning a lifetime’s dictates takes a minute and when one of those dictates was keep moving! all the time! something IS gaining on you! it can be quite the endeavor to sit still. Still, the Partner always says that if everyone would just stop for a while, things could change. I think he’s right but the stopping bit is not as easy as you might think. The constant endeavor to make things “better”, to “fix” what’s askew, to keep dust and clutter at bay, to remain above water…..it becomes habitual to the point where one may not see that in fact, progress is not occurring but the hole one is in is definitely getting bigger and filling with an uncongenial substance. The cognitive uproar creeps in (they’re saying it’s white but really? it’s black) and you just might start to realize that since you aren’t asleep or anywhere close to it, it is time to stop believing in the..er…American Dream.
We saw Three Days of the Condor yesterday and I found it rather deeply disturbing. Not only did I wonder just what has actually happened to Robert Redford’s skin, but? For a movie made in 1975- a long time ago no matter how you slice it- it was about as up to the minute as it could be politically. In short- it’s been the same old shit FOREVER. It’s about oil and power and even in that hoary old chestnut of a movie the US was invading Venezuela and middle eastern nations. JUST LIKE TODAY. Not about cooperative world progress or even, heaven forfend, proper THINKING ABOUT THINGS, you know? Thinking? Problem solving? Who said the entirety of everything has to be about making the world safe for petroleum? The people who have been making the decisions for the world turn out to be not much smarter- if any at all- than you and me. They just had a higher spot on the legacy totem pole.
Notwithstanding the personal stuff of our lives which for many is larger and more challenging than ever, there’s this other gargantuan thing taking up all the air in the room. Namely, what appears to be an epic, titanic looming struggle to the death, between those who operate on the sole basis of capitalist self interest and those who do not. I have to wonder how such an aggregation of seeming morons as we have at the top of the world could have done what they have, in fact, done. No regard for truth or compassion. Lying and hypocrisy are the order of the day. When you hear the talk about unemployment and job creation? What do most people think? There’s no way on earth enough jobs could be “created” in this country to meet the needs of its people. An aging population gets shoved on the conveyor belt to poverty as the upcoming younger group realizes there is no future for them, either. Free trade? means free for the interests at the top and prohibited for the small person at the bottom. It leads to the expansion of “black” markets and segregated communities. The health care situation in the US is completely ridiculous and the new “affordable Health Care” act is just another way to make the world safe for insurance companies even above and beyond how it was before.
So, yeah. It’s January and I’m depressed. But hope springs eternal, and I have an excellent stash of duck fat now. Hope it lasts.
Boozilla: learning to fly one room at a time 
Posted by Wanda Brenni on January 8, 2014 at 7:30 pm
We are of the same mind as always.