Ok, due to wisdom teeth removal pain and subsequent days of pain killers, the blog is both on time, but probably something that may not make a whole lot of sense. In saying this, I would just like to remind you that my sparky wit and intelligent repoirte may be downgraded this week, but exists nonetheless.
So today's blog...I was expecting more backlash from my gay marriage views...maybe the l-word and queer as folk have desensitized my populace of readers to the ways the gay folk sometimes feel about convention...but I'm glad i got it out there!
So today, I am having some thoughts about our need to fill in our days and time on earth. For 4 days now, I have been largely out of action. Oscillating between the couch and the bed, drinking chocolate milk and eating yogo (8 yr olds worldwide I am sure would be very excited about this). This is a massive diversion for me. My days of non-working are always filled with loads of stuff (even if at times it's menial) and my days of working are stimulating and at times exhausting. I exercise, talk with people and try and be well read.
I'm not gonna lie. When I was told I would need to take a chunk of time off, I was filled a little bit with excitement and possibility. The decadence of watching endless tv, indulging in comfort food and drugs, and perhaps the best part, no one has any expectation of me right now. Is it enjoyable? Nope, not even a little bit. Apart from pain, I am quite frankly under-stimulated and bored. I have tried to read, but my brain won't pay attention, I have thought of at least 5 business ideas, planned fantasy trips and got angry at stupid people on tv...
I have always been confused by people in my world, and in the world at large who opt (for whatever reason) to not work/study/etc for periods of time. I am all about work/life balance, I only work 4 days a week, and that's my choice. But, the idea of simply having nothing to do confuses me, and psychologically doesn't make much sense to me. Work (or any other purposeful activities) provide us with much more than financial security, it gives us a sense of ownership, purpose, success and human interaction. We have known for a very long time that the links between depression, unemployment and decreases in immune function. None of these things are good obviously, but there are times when people have little choice then to not participate in employment. And like any function of depression, the less someone does, the less we want to do, hence the cycle of unemployment being much harder to break than it would appear from the surface when people say simply "the dole bludgers are...." lazy, worthless etc...
I worked with the long term unemployed for a long time, and it became obvious very quickly even in my quite naive understanding of the world that it is not as simple as putting someone in a job and then all is fixed. The factors contributing to unemployment are numerous and complicated, and range from family expectations, self esteem, transport, low mood, skills, environmental market trends, where u live, what language u speak etc...however, the thing that I know is that even initially people may make the choice to take time out, the longer that this time out lingers, it becomes more exponentially harder to reenter the place from which u came.
I'm not even a little bit comparing my experience this week to being unemployed, but it has reminded me, that this isn't a fun, fruitful or engaging way to live. We have all been in situations like this from time to time, when students etc when noodles were the staple food for years, but there was a sense it would finish at some time and it would get better. I can only imagine what that might be like without being able to see any way out of this, and frankly I don't wish it upon anybody.
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