So... these past two years, in addition to worrying about the usual stuff - pretty much every morning, I have been listening to the news as it relates to stock market... What investors are saying, the impact of the worlds ills on the economy, the ups, the downs, the purported economic recovery, how wonderful that consumer confidence is up, the DJIA is up, NASDAQ is up, the housing market still bust, etc etc.
And then we had the flash crash, and rioting in Greece, then unrest in Egypt, problems in Libya and disaster in Japan - all affecting the stock market.. It went up, it went down, the value of the dollar went up and down......
There have been many who have said 'we are in recovery because there are less people on the unemployment rolls. Yet, still we hear that there are no jobs. And that US companies cannot find the expertise they need here in the US and so must look overseas.
So - why are there less people on unemployment? There aren't any jobs out there. Not really.
Companies are asking the impossible of the people who are still employed and they are getting it because there are no jobs. At least not here in the US for US natives.
After thinking about this for two years, worrying about it... worrying about having a job, worrying about what happens if I don't..... concerned because there are 3 people (and several animals that are dependant on me..... worry worry worry fret fret fret. Worry for my kids - IF they can get TO college and if they can graduate from college and what jobs will be available for them when they do graduate and are we going to require a college degree to flip burgers soon?
Oh yes - the education system..... We now need a college degree costing as much as many houses to teach us .... what? How to, say -plan a party, run a restaurant, take care of children, run an office.... Why? What does a piece of paper tell you about me? That I went through 4 more years of school? And this makes me better than someone who has not?
I am all for careers like doctors, nurses, lawyers, biochemists, architects and others like that requiring more education. These careers require FAR more knowledge than can be gained from an average education. But - what about the rest?
Has it ever occurred to anyone to wonder why, while there is shrinkage in so many sectors, universities are building and expanding? I look at Yale - they are constantly renovating and making better that which is already existing. I look at UNH - I don't recognize the campus I was on 30 years ago. I look at SCSU - where does that campus end? We have an education system..... Like we have a healthcare system - both growing by leaps and bounds. The ONLY two 'growth' industries that I can see.
And the printing presses keep rolling.... printing more and more money that is only worth something to the people who have it in the country it is being printed in and only a select few actually have much of it..... the rest work to support them.
I could go on and on and on with the things I have heard and listened to and thought about....
None of it good.
And none of it that I can change.
And then I was told that I was not getting enough vitamin D. Vitamin D primarily comes from the sun. The sun that can't reach the room that I spend most of my time ... my 'office'. And I almost lost my daughter.
SO - what CAN I change?
I moved my 'office'.
I moved me.
Downstairs - in the sun. And the doom and gloom of the stock market and the constant news remains upstairs. Down here, I hear the laughter of kids, the tumbling and pounding of four-footed critters playing, and music. Happy music. Pretty soon, I will open the windows here - and I will hear the birds chirping as they build their nests. Some (Mr. & Mrs. Robin) have already started. I have been spending time with both my kids. Just sitting talking, watching THEIR movies with them..... talking to THEIR friends....
I am wealthier than I ever imagined.
