The first is that I could do with more of a break (and especially a break with less snarkiness about me being off line on the occassional time I checked for any emergencies), but so could many, many, MANY other people - especially the young mothers with too many young kids, carers for people who are ill, those working multiple jobs to make ends meet (which I admit would include me if I could find a 2nd job with suitable hours :/ ), and so on. When I began working, nearly half a century ago, I looked forward to being able to take a decent chunk of leave - my ideal is to take all four weeks in winter, but we have to reserve at lest a week for compulsory leave for the end of the year holiday period (the [neochristian] Christmas-New Year period), which means I would get one week in summer, and only three weeks in my beloved winter.
I haven't been able to do that for a long time, and I've come across many engineers who, through a combination of circumstances, such as changing jobs or working on a contract basis, have been many years without any sort of a break. It is stupid, but then that seems to be what has happened - in fact, many engineers take an almost masochistic pleasure in how self-sacrificing they can be "for the sake of the company". It can be a laudable thing to desire to be of service, but NOT when that is for a commercial organisation which is, in a competitive market, too often inherently benefitting at the expense of others. This has a few problems, such as disguising lack of profitability - many companies, over the last few decades, have seemed to make a profit solely on the basis of the unpaid overtime. When I've commented about that, the response has been to the effect that such is "necessary" in order to compete with other companies - mostly US companies, who are even worse in the way they treat their employees.
Well, it has a few problems, and the lack of adequate down time I've just written is but one of those.
There is a lot more I could write about this (and have in the past - for instance, see here), such as the technical flaws of accelerated construction programmes, the difficulty of attracting engineers when the reality is their future will be trying to get their (badly-defined) utilisation rate over 80% and their profits over X% (I stopped talking to potential engineers some years ago now, for ethical reasons which were basically concerns over what sort of future those young people would have in my industry), etc, but the key point is that quality of life has declined, and the responses to me pointing that out when this was starting and since has been along the lines of "it is necessary" / "we need to do this to compete". Well, the personal and social price I was talking about has arrived, and we DID have other options - we, as a society, could have, for starters, actually have thought about this all.
I suspect the big challenge there is that people don't want to feel that they could miss out - FOMO is not something limited to the Internet age! I'm seeing the downside of that in houses, in particular, and that problem goes back a lot longer because, as I've written about elsewhere (here, for instance), Australians have been building shoddy houses for a long time. Generally, this is described as lower quality ("lower cost") houses for the sake of affordability, but I contend that is lower quality and cost to allow BIGGER houses (in the 1930s, a typical family would be 6 people, with multiple kids to a bedroom and families living in smaller houses than are typically built today), and also just straight out lack of foresight / thinking (such as the failure to provide verandahs on the east, north and west side of Australian houses). Now, some of this is related historically to limits on construction materials: as an example, I recall seeing a television programme once - back in the days when I watched TV! - which described how Victorian wallpaper (the stuff with patterns that so many people make fun of) was actually to cover cracks and other problems associated with building materials and techniques of that time; however, there were better choices available even then - for instance, one of the best houses I have come across is a mud-brick house in central Victoria which is over a century old (it has verandahs on key sides to protect the mud bricks, but those bricks are now very, very solid - our firend said they were like concrete when he made some changes).
This is the only photo I have showing any of that (I generally took photos of the bush on his land when we were there):
If I choose a more recent example, the house we have moved into is very nice in the modern sense - lots of glass windows for light, for instance. However, they're mostly on the south side, so don't get the winter sun and just contribute to the house being colder (which also goes back to glazing choices), the gas heating is in the roof (heat rises: outlets need to be in the floor!), I suspect the insulation is nominal only, and the front door is so loose that it lets in far more wind than we ever had in the place we used to live in - and that was bad enough. If better choices had been made on those aspects, the house would have to have been smaller to be built for the same price - which is a key point I am making: we are trading quality off for quantity, and thinking that, because the house superficially looks more glitzy, we're better off.
And that mistake is being made in many areas of life.
I've also worked out why it is harder to work with energy here:
- because we're so much closer to our neighbours - this is on a typical smaller block, with a greater proportion given to house than plants; and
- not enough big trees.
The other thing I've noticed while on holiday is the dearth of good books - meaning the sort of book I want to read :) I want fiction, not something to study, and there is the Deverry series and, to some extent the Dresden files, but - and this applies to them as well - most of it builds drama around things like war: I would like to read something which wasn't based on physical violence (I often fast forward films past the gratuitous violence - and the violence is often (a) gratuitous, and (b) unrealistic, no matter how grossly it is portrayed, as it fails to have the psychic energy that goes with such events in real life), but had the sort of psychic struggles that I work with. I've started trying to write the sort of fiction I want to read (e.g., see here, here, here, and here), but ... I know what's going to happen, so I'd like to read something along those lines that has been written by others - a bit like the free fiction T. Thorn Coyle does, for instance, or Dion Fortune's novels, but - and I'm getting picky here! - I want to be able to lay in bed and hold it in my hand, as a hard copy ... so I'll just have to save up stuff and print it out, I guess :)
Anyway, time to think about breakfast.
Love, light, hugs and blessings
I am revamping my former website, and getting at least one other underway (pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix
Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga
... )
My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this
site) is here, and my glossary/index is here. The reasons for my caution when using Wikipedia are here.
I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue
(see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "Pagans for Peace" project (and join me
for a few minutes at some time between 8 and 11 PM on Sunday, wherever you are,
to meditate-clear for peace), and here
for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend
learning how to flame, ground
and shield, do alternate
nostril breathing, work
with colour, and see also here and be
flexible.
May the best in me, my Higher Self,
and those of the Clear Light who assist me,
help me to keep myself grounded, centred and shielded,
to be Balanced and a Fulcrum of Balance,
a centre of Balanced Positivity and Spiritual Maturity,
with my aura continuously cleansed, cleared and closed,
repelling all negative or unwanted energies,
whilst allowing positive, balancing and healing energies in and through.
The real dividing line is not between
Christianity and Islam, Sunni and Shia, East and West. It is between people who
believe in coexistence, and those who don’t.
- All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...
Tags: change, discrimination, military, nonviolence, peace, society, violence, war,
First published: Fryrsdagr, 15th July, 2016
Last edited (excluding fixing typo's
and other minor matters): Friday, 15th July, 2016
