I was thinking earlier today – and actually remembered tonight – that it sucks getting ‘old.’ Why? Well, there’s no one around to talk with about, um, bodily functions. In particular, um, er, hrm, ah… elimination. Yep, times are tough. And I’m left wondering if anybody else experienced what I experienced when I…. Never mind. I flushed and forgot about it. Or, I thought I did. I guess not.
I wrote the other day about the “New Abnormal” Normal.” Face it, this high unemployment, to some, is here to stay for quite a long while. That’s what “they” said the other day. What changed between then and now? Did something magically happen to turn things around just like that? Today, Employers see uptick in hiring in 2010. Yesterday, the song went along like employers know that they can squeeze what they have left for employees until their veins are dry, milking them for all they’re worth and then some. Why? Employees are terrified to lose their jobs and will take whatever is thrown at them, just so that they can keep on keeping on.
Through the doom and gloom, we hear an unending tale about poor Tiger Woods’ affairs, brought to light just because he happened to run his SUV into something. Was it a tree? A fire hydrant? Don’t know, don’t care. Today, it’s Charlie Sheen back in the news because his wife called 911. Who cares? What does it matter? Oh, and Opera is going to, sob sob, retire in, sob sob sob, the next century or so, sob sob sob sob. Really? Does that have anything to do with anything that’s important by any stretch of the imagination?
I swear, I really do miss being able to talk with someone about my bodily functions, and I’m sorry, but I don’t have health coverage and seeing a doc is just way out of the reach of my budget.
Then, I see a headline about 22 dying from measles in Zimbabwe, and most of them are children. Wasn’t that dastardly childhood disease wiped out? What’s that you say? Oh, it takes a vaccine. Ah, I get it now. The people in Zimbabwe don’t have health coverage either. There’s no one with deep enough pockets to pay for the necessary vaccine and its distribution to millions who don’t even have a pot to piss in. Would it be too much to ask that the vaccine makers just give it to those that need it?
It must be, otherwise we wouldn’t be seeing deaths caused by an entirely preventable disease. We wouldn’t see an upswing in the cases of tuberculosis either. What’s next? Polio? Bubonic Plague? Oh, I forgot. It’s normal to see a couple thousand cases of BP a year in the United States. Shoot, they thought I had it once.
But, the whole apple cart is about to tip over, from newspapers to TV to phone to… Yeah, it’s about to tip over because of something that was never, ever supposed to happen again: A Depression. The stock markets and banks were supposed to be safeguarded by this and that law, rule, regulation, or whatever it was that they did to put a band-aid on a gaping hole.
Hey, never say never. Guess what? Just as history and all economics books teach, in capitalism, a collapse happens just about every 75 years. It’s a cyclical thing, and it’s right on time!
Oh, I am so tempted to wipe with dollar bills, that’s how much I think of money. And capitalism. And that this damned depression is just making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Those stuck in the middle are just sinking too, spiraling down that same drain hole that the rest of us have already been sucked through.
So, I ask. No, I demand to know: Is money the one and only motivator? Is it money that drives creativity, productivity, ingenuity and advances? Is money the only reason people get out of bed in the morning? Is money the only “important” thing?
I don’t know. I don’t understand it. I just don’t get it.
Flush…
Swoosh, it circles the drain, and then it's gone. It really was remarkable, in its own raw way. I have no idea if it was a normal thing or not, but, oh well.
I don't know what it was either, but here's hoping that Tiger's scandal and all the other "crap" went down the toilet with it.
ReplyDeleteYou said it out loud!! Crap is what it all is too.
ReplyDeleteGirly-o, you just said a mouthful.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind working hard. I don't do what I do for the money, other than to pay my bills. All I want is enough to pay my bills and get decent health coverage. That's my American Dream, and about as likely these days as pulling a monkey out of my ass. And those suckers don't flush.
I'm with you, kiddo. And let me just say for the record...carrot juice does weird things to your elimination. In case you wanted to know. :)
Yes, I wouldn't be so obsessed with money if I had enough of it to pay some bills and have health care.
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you. I don't have health insurance either and we are in that group who is getting poorer as taxes go up, up, up (property taxes in Vermont) so we will have to sell our farm. Don't have the answer and haven't seen it yet either.
ReplyDeleteYep, more and more of us are without health care, and all the hooplah in the White House about it has netted an overhaul, ha whatever, that won't help you and I one bit - except cost us more money when they make it law that we have to spend more of our few pennies to buy some. Right.
ReplyDeleteShark, I'm with you. All I want to do is pay the bills. I also don't "work" for money. I do what I do because I love it. The pay is just the icing on the cake. I do wish it was more pay, but, paying the bills is all that matters.
It's supposed to be cheap to live in AR, and it is - until it's time to pay this tax and that tax and yet again another tax. Bull!
Oh I have never really believed that money itself..all by itself made people tick. People get out of bed in the morning and go...not because of money but because of their distaste for boredom...an undying need to be happy or at least finding happiness. Money may facilitate the happiness but it surely does not "buy" it. A selfish need for personal satisfaction is a strong motivator...perhaps even more so than money. Capitalism is not the problem. The American dollar bill is not the problem. How we think and feel and react may be the problem...I don't know. I do know just a little about human nature. And when I think I have people figured out...I realize I remain oblivious to the true nature of things. Instead of feeling disappointed or betrayed by what I cannot understand or accept, I choose my own road, my own way...the only thing I truly can control.
ReplyDeleteI would like to agree with you, and for the most part, I share your thinking. Looking at Maslow's Hierarchy of Need, motivation is driven by physical need, then when met, energy can be spent on higher level needs, the highest being self-actualization. He, of course, never quite expanded his theory enough to include the 7 deadly sins or even any of the "abnormal." In the end, there is no theory complete enough to truly nail down human nature.
ReplyDeleteHow we choose to walk through it all may literally point out how much of the negatives we can filter out, and what we can't filter out, how well we can navigate through the crap. There is a fair amount of self-responsibility that is denied or just plain ignored while doing so, with many missed opportunities to affect change.
Our thinking has evolved away from community and into a damaging individuality, leaving doing anything for "the good of the many" a nasty thing.