Wednesday 8 January 2014

The darkest hour is just before dawn

You can’t help but absorb some of the bad vibes from around yourself, unless you are a person of iron will. I am not a person of iron will.

I have a month left to work for my current employer. On the whole I’m pleased that I’m being made redundant. Yes it means that I’m losing my income and I know not when and if I’ll be able to get another job but I loathe my job with a passion. It’s a hateful soul-destroying job that apart from a wage in no way fulfils me; so a result. Unfortunately many of my co-workers (also losing their livelihoods) are not quite as philosophical and sanguine about it. Their stress and general unhappiness manifests itself in many different forms and it rubs off. As a result I soak up some of their pain, like blotting paper.

The whole of the branch of the company I work for is being closed down, eventually. Our redundancies are staggered. Different people going at different times depending on the job that they do. I am reminded of pictures from World War One of blinded soldiers from the front shuffling along in single file one after the other a hand on the one in front and a sighted person leading the way. Hardly the same thing I know and I have no intention of playing down the horrors of war but the whole process does upset people profoundly.

We are in a queue waiting to be pushed off the edge. It’s the waiting that is the most upsetting. People want to move on.

N.E.X.T.
 

Wednesday 1 January 2014

New Year my arse!

The New Years Eve celebrations are as meaningless as the Christmas ones the week before. It’s all very arbitrary. People make resolutions that they rarely keep. Companies like Weight Watchers and Fitness First (other weight-loss and gymnasium companies are available) scoop up lashings of money from well intentioned punters who really haven’t thought things through. People sign up and part with their hard-earned cash expecting to lose weight and get fit by proxy; it ain't that simple. It turns out to be as much of a sham as the celebrations themselves.

So much of modern life is built on smoke and mirrors. Often just for the benefit of our masters. Distractions for the masses allow them to continue to rule and exploit.

And don’t criticise me for being an old stick in the mud and defend something that you feel to be traditional, because tradition is a very moveable feast. Until 1751 the New Year started on 25th March. Cope with that one traditional knob heads!