Vocations, economics, etc.

In this current version of life, so changed from 6 months ago, I find myself working in a job I'm not particularly fond of. I sit in a chair and go to curriculum guides and then peruse the sources my district has approved and a few others that I trust, and cobble together lessons for 2nd graders. This is far from what I enjoy, and far from what I'm comfortable with. Now in week 7 I have become more adept, learned how to add crude animations to powerpoints, become more comfortable voicing over a prepared lesson. Friday, teachers reported to the school for the first time since mid-March. We needed to gather our students' belongings and get them down to the cafeteria for pickup. Earlier, I'd decided to give each of my students one of the stuffed animals we kept on the bookshelves as reading buddies. I enjoyed thinking of them with their favorite ones and was happy to add a nice surprise to their day. The morning flew past, just organizing stuff that had been pulled out from their desks and left in piles when the custodians sanitized all desks and surfaces earlier in March. I had very mixed feelings... I was charmed by the evidence of my students' idiosyncrasies as I went through their belongings. Happy that I don't have to wake up at 5 to get to work in time to have a smooth morning. Happy not to have to deal with all the bureaucratic red tape that is such a drain and a headache in public education. Sad that I won't get to see these kids until they come back as third graders next year. Grateful that I have a job at all. Frightened for the many many, far too many, who don't.

On my drive to school, I noticed the progress the road crews have made in widening Highway 82. The workers were out in the breezy, beautiful, dry and clear, morning air. I felt very happy for the men and women of FDOT who brave the sweltering Florida summers, yet who are also the same boys and girls who likely loved pushing their vehicles across dirt, making tunnels and cities in mud. Lucky in many ways are those of us who get to be in environments we love, doing work we like.

Which brings me to the thoughts I've been having about the broken economy. We've survived as a species through the economic systems of feudalism, mercantilism, and since the 1800s through the vagaries of capitalism. In hindsight, we can see that change comes in its own good time, usually accompanied by severely bad times. The late stage of capitalism, which we have been warned about, has come. It's cancerous, now. Killing us, killing our spirit. It's obsolete.  So many people cannot fathom any other system, not knowing it is a manmade construct. But we will see it go... How I wish Bernie and Yang were the ticket, I think that combo may have seen us through this in a less violent riotous fashion. But no. It will get ugly. The Earth holds far too many people with decreasing sources of viable income. The air is full of despair and has been for many many years as the economy has become more and more unviable.

My hope is that we will enter an era where doing things you love and excel in will be enough to have a living. The end of bullshit jobs, low pay, chained up souls in crippling debt who don't earn enough to keep up. All of that, someday, in the past. I think we all know it's going to get very hard on this poor heated up polluted planet. But please keep a good heart. There are beautiful sweet children who depend on us for that. It's the least and the best we can do. I have surgeons, karaoke stars, philosophers, beauticians, and comedians waiting to serve and entertain you.

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