Watch you step

Now that everyone has met each other, it's good to know that this virtual life has so many layers of benefits to everyone. It's been interesting to me, just to watch where my mind goes, and then to be able to read what everyone else is experiencing. It adds so much to the sense of how complex and varied our species is. New careers, new jobs, old friends, childhood memories, histories, alcohol, bad boyfriends,drawing, pictures, poems, the whole spectrum.

And I don't have to take care of you.

But I have learned many things, just in the two days I've been back at work this week. I'll stick with one message today, as I've been told that this is a blog, and the average attention span given to any one blog is about two to three minutes. Which is fine, because that' probably true for me too.

So today's lesson is this: Don't fall behind. Don't make too many(and sometimes one is too many), major mistakes. Because here in this country, at this time, with these attitudes, once you're a step behind, you're fucked.

I see guys in their fifties who have lost their job, partly because they were just in the wrong place, partly because they were a step too slow, partly because they made a bad decision, and that's it for them. They'll never get another good job like that. Their savings will be shot, their lives will be completely altered.

Don't put yourself into debt. Don't get sick. Don't go crazy. Don't let your divorce ruin your career. Don't let your career ruin your marriage. Don't let your addictions ruin your marriage and/or your career. Don't get a DUI. Don't get a felony charge, or even hang around with people who do. Don't look like a terrorist.

Once you get way behind the eight-ball, even your therapist is going to have difficulty getting you back in shape.

This country doesn't care. It seems to feast on the weak and the poor. The decks are stacked in favor of the banks, the bureaucracies, the institutions and the insurance companies. Usually, the only thing you can fall back on is inherited money. If you don't have a trust fund, get used to riding the bus.

Most of the people I see in this category are good, hard working, caring, well-meaning people. But this society is very unkind to the slightly inept. There is no safety net, there is no compassion, there is no real generosity. And it isn't that people are mean, it's just that everyone is frightened to take the time to care, because that may just make them break stride, and next thing they know they have fallen step behind themselves. The pressure is always looking over your shoulder.

The only real solution is to do two things: Plan for contingencies, and don't get too caught up in the American race to nowhere. Both of these can relieve stress, free-up time, and allow you to do what is important in life:

Have fun. -- in a nice, jovial, environmentally friendly, socially constructive, inter-personally supportive, clever, inventive, creative, expressive kind of a way.

If you can run your own life and ignore the pressure, then you will have time and space in your head to care about those around you, and then you will be a blessing to the world. (But you won't be compensated in American dollars)