Destitution

The broad base definition for it is lacking something needed or desirable. A close second is lacking possessions and resources; especially extreme poverty. It’s a Middle English word distilled from the Latin destitutus meaning abandon, deprive from. In English, its origins in written text dates back to the 14th century. But whether we use beggarded, broke, poor, down-and-out, famished, hard up, impecunious, impoverished, indigent, necessitous, needful, pauperized, penniless or threadbare we are all familiar with the condition that distills ‘lost opportunity’.   Ours is a nation that prides itself on decrying that it is the land of opportunity, but in earnest I wonder if that is any longer the fact and not projected wishful thinking. 

When I was young, finding a job was contingent on experience. And without a job how were you supposed to get experience? None of my elders could ever solve that Gordian knot; (a reference to the Oracles of antiquity saying the man who could solve the Gordian knot shall be king, whereby Alexander the Great was renowned to have puzzled out the solution thereby securing his conquest.) 

Later in life it was about education, did you have a degree? If you didn’t have money, how were you to obtain access to and pay for, the institutions that would grant a degree? Today, after accumulating plenty of diverse experience as well as several degrees, it has becomes a case of specific certifications. How do you get certified but through a gauntlet of offices authorized to issue such credentials? This, is far more insidious than any University degree, since it makes credential an opaque process. The board is not subject to oversight by an elected body. A board of officials is comprised by appointment. Now it’s no surprise that a certification board is appointed as a political favor, so then, as such is not subject to legitimate review; in short, it only reports to the favor grantor.

The system is reminiscent of the medieval guild system that established, by charters, or letters patent as well as other similar authority of a city or by the ruler, who normally held a monopoly on trade in its craft within the city in which it operated: handicraft workers were forbidden by law to run any business if they were not members of a guild, and only masters were allowed to be members of a guild. (Much like Psychologist and Physicians are today) Before these privileges were legislated, these groups of handicraft workers were simply called 'handicraft associations'.

Of course the current rational today for having a license or certification is promulgated on an assurance to protect the public; granted there were years in the past where charlatan’s sold ‘snake oil’ for all that ills a person. So the necessity to qualify a trade was evident within a host of products consumed by the public who could be taken advantage of. I’ll skirt by all premise without resorting to pointing out the alarming malpractice suits that hit the books annually. Those who continue to victimize the public yet ARE holders of the prized licenses and certifications stating they are credible practitioners in their field, so requiring certification doesn’t really prevent abuse. 

I sense the current necessity for certification is a mere reemergence of an overarching desire to control competition. By containing the number of people performing any tasks, you can command a greater price for the service. The simple law of supply and demand holds true.

 Remaining a hindrance to any who refuses to follow a well trod and dictated path that excludes any who do not conform to the rules laid down by the current usurping authority. And with that in place, we are all destitute of innovation.

Footing

I went to the foot doc and he told me I can dispense with my temporary blow up foot aide (don't ask). And I'm so happy!

Then, it's on to spot painting the raw wood on the deck in preparations for a long winter. We've decided to change the color from forest green to the brick-brown that is commonly found around the country...change is good.

let's see what else?

Oh here's a hoot. I applied to Boeing last night only to find out today that they're laying off 12,000 (in anticipation of Obamacare impact on the profit margin). So I guess I can NOT hold my breath on that one.

I was thinking (around the time I was liberated from my foot aid) how little it takes for any of us (or at least me) to be happy. A few more coins in our pocket, a little more free time...I'm reminded of a very good saying.

Ours is a world of wonder.

and to look beyond the surface of that, and get to its pulsating cores.

Parallel to that was the recognition with long-term acquaintances masquerading as friendship. And I take full responsibility for the deception. I didn't give non-participation a second glance, I just brushed off those occasions I had put a burden on a relationship only to come up dry. "Oh well, not everyone is as giving" I'd tell myself and keep those who did not respond to need with care.

I'm past that and can report I don't need filler as substitute for friends. That doesn't mean everyone I call friend MUST come running, but you know they need to at least make the gesture. When I've mentioned I was looking for work, those long-term (and on occasion lover) relationships that went mute....well, that investment has been exhausted. Do I wish the silent ones well? Do I curse them, hope for harm to befall? Nope...I allow them to sift back into the blank ordinariness of the surroundings and let that be as it is....changed. Right there with my once bestest friend from the 3rd Grade Billy Brown. 

I can still see his mischievous grin and we got into SOOOOOO much trouble back then. But for now, I'll cherish those who feed me as I feed them

What We Do; How We Learn

I was notified that my candidacy for a position I was really interested in was declined.  Now, sure we all have our disappointing moments; that comes in the package of living well.  I know for me, I’d be deceiving myself if I thought that I would only experience positive events as some divine sign of my being special. Or, that my life was somehow granted a pass on the unpleasant.  In fact, given a chance to consider it, I’d say such a situation would be a prison of pleasure.  True as any fantasy, it’d be fun to linger on the possibilities of effortless bliss, but I’m season enough from the battles well fought to know nothing given has value; you got to grab it.  Who doesn’t tell themselves they have to deserve favor?  Earn one’s bread sort of ethos?

So then, back to the disappointment; I enlisted some organizational spies to ferret out what was going on with the selection process.  In so doing, find that the interviewing portion of the process had closed; finished and I wasn’t called.  Connecting the dots, that would mean I wasn’t invited to the party.  On the face of it I must admit, I was stunned that my glaring-perfect-fit qualities didn’t get me the job right away, (and with fanfare near parade proportion no less); but then I recall I decided to cultivate patients and allow the process to work it’s enviable course to my conclusion.  After all, the processes should be absent of (other people’s) bias.  When the wait became prolonged, even for the dullest of toady appointments to do their job, I had to resort to skullduggery.  All of that to acknowledge that I was not calculating the signs in their correct order. So then, my dismay was born in realizing that the process was finished and I was not selected the obvious best choice.  Mixed in with my chagrin was a little self-incriminating-embarrassment for failing to read the signs correctly. But, the bigger and larger dead elephant in my personal parlor became immediately apparent; I suddenly lost my purpose.

   From my training, I am acutely aware how much competence plays in self esteem.  And that competence is the anchor to an overarching sense of well-being.  No matter the situation or the conditions of our living moments we must feel competent in accomplishing our self appointed tasks; even if those tasks are asked of us by externally driven demands.  We adopt them as our own, and sally forth to take on the dragons of our day.  In those moments when we consider we are inadequate to the task, if we deem we have not enough armor, or our sword too dull, then there is crises.  What greater crises in any life than lack?  Not absence of a key ingredient, say live batteries for a flashlight, because in those cases we know how to solve the problem of necessary.  Lack, in and of itself, means there is a halt to progress without solution; so then we face an emotional/mental oubliette (dead-end dungeon).

   How sad to experience such dark disappointment.  Yet it is in these disillusioned times, when the fire of fantasy burns out, leaving only the actual.  I am once more reminded of the formula:  Expectations are unquestioned, and/or unexamined self-fulfilling prophecy. When unmet, disappointment occurs. Another way of saying it is this; unfettered wishes.  

    Walking in life trusting in our expectations we WILL travel further and further from the actual.  And life can be very indulgent in this, making sure there is clarity at just how unimportant any of us singularly really are to the huge movement of the universe. But still, there is kindness in existence. When that difference can no longer be sustained by the power of our will-to-be, then crises snaps us back on course to where and when there is no resistance to what is; Here and Now.

In conclusion on this very short assessment of consequential relationship, for every disappointment comes the new beginning. 

Of course most of us, (me for certain) will begin laying tiles on a road built mostly on expectations.  It’s what we do…it’s how we learn.