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No Plan, Much Guilt

There is never a perfect time, but, arguably, some times are better than others to quit your job.

Like a few other departures in my life, (ahem) this lacked a plan. It was something I might do someday, way off in the future. You know, when things are perfect for leaving. Never mind how much suffering is going on in the meantime. Life fortunately, did had a plan. So, suddenly, here I am, happily, yet fearfully, unemployed.

If you are lucky, and paying attention, you can make a plan to leave your work, your lover, spouse, parents, whatever, but I suspect a lot of the time it just happens. The moment suddenly appears. A window of opportunity opens up and you duck out. Or you reach a limit, a line gets crossed and you’re outta here!

Only much later you may realize how much you wanted out. Unconsciously, we have had enough.

I just reread the story The Book of Eve (Constance Beresford-Howe), where the woman leaves her husband, no plan, no nothing, one day she hurriedly packs a few things and just walks out. She learns to live and love again. It was interesting how this not only benefited her, but many other people too. There are many great messages here.

So even when it looks like a big mistake, it isn’t. If your heart is in it, then you’ve done the right thing. Everything logical may tell you that you are a fucking idiot, but your heart just sits back, sips a margarita and chills. It’ll all work out. God will use whatever road you are on.

I feel immense guilt for writing about my decision to quit at this time, because many people had no choice, it was swift and without mercy, and now all their money is gone and they are facing enormous hardship.

I am very fortunate to have been able to make a choice and I realize that. So many others have been left destitute because of Covid-19. So I do know that although this pandemic forced me to make the change I longed to make I am extremely lucky.

At least, until my savings run out too. And, they will.

I may develop a taste for cat food.

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You Are Here

Remember the good old days when we went to shopping malls?

There would be, somewhere in the facility, after a lengthy search of going in circles until exhausted with no place to sit, a directory, and it would say “You are Here.”

You’d look at that map and wonder where the fuck you are. It would then take a half hour of titling your head from side to side, to practically doing a headstand to figure out where here is. Once you did establish it, you’d spend another half hour trying to find the store you want, then orientating yourself as to, do you go right, left, up, down, back where you came from? Or worse, discovering the store is no longer. Get us to the food court please, surely to God there will be some much needed bathrooms there!

Airport directories are way worse.

Welcome to the abyss. This is where I am now. At that infamous directory saying “You are Here”. Only in the abyss, there is just sky, clouds, the odd bird. I don’t want to look down. It might give me an idea of how far up I am, and, hmm, is that ground getting closer?

I am referring of course to my recent decision to quit a 15 year soul sucking job.

It was a huge leap into the abyss, especially during a pandemic, into a future unknown. However, I will tell you this, it is way better to have a future unknown than the future known. The future that repeats the past, day in and day out of misery and predictable boredom.

So even if the ground is fast approaching, maybe I’ll figure out where here is and where I can go before the final splat.

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Good Timing

When would be the worst possible time to quit your job.

Let’s see:

When there is a global pandemic.

When the world is facing a global economic depression never seen before.

When tens of millions of people are unemployed.

When you are a senior.

When you are in debt.

Hmmm.

Okay.

I quit.

Yep, I quit my job.

And I did exactly the right thing.

I suspect a lot of other people have too.

I have had to face my reality head on while at home. I’ve been forced to reassess my life. Away from the office I was outside of my situation and problems, enabling me to see with a new perspective and a fresh outlook. When you are in the problem, you cannot see clearly.

And at the worst possible moment in all of history, I make a life changing decision. To make my life, my own.

Here we go!

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Just Do It.

Covid is not a political hoax.

It is a disease. A highly infectious disease.

It only knows how to infect, disable and kill.

It is blindly objective.

So for God’s sake wear a mask when you go out.

Do it for love, of yourself, others and all of the world.

Get a new understanding. It doesn’t care anything about you, your beliefs, your country, your history. This is a global pandemic. GLOBAL. Think about it.

We can debate and discuss and accuse and whatever later. None of that matters now.

What matters is what you do. Are you going to be part of the problem? Or part of the solution?

Do your part. Social distancing. Wear a mask. Wash your hands.

Simple.

It won’t be forever. Just a short while out of your whole entire life. Months out of decades. And you want your whole entire life to be many more years, do you not?

There are no guarantees that you will be safe, but we can greatly reduce our chances of getting and spreading this disease if we follow protocol. We can put the odds in our favour of staying healthy. Just do it.

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What a Dollar Can Do

Imagine if everyone in this world received a basic income.

For the want of a very small amount of money people cannot move forward in their lives.

It usually does not take much to have peace of mind. Enough to pay the rent. Enough to buy food. Enough to make a dream come true.

If everyone had enough money for their basic needs, what do you think this would mean?

No more poverty. It’d reduce crime.

Most people are not lazy. But most people are desperate and living on the edge. If they have a guaranteed income, it gives them freedom to become all that they can be. How could this not benefit the entire world?

The ones who do not want to work, this is totally okay. I mean, think about it. We already have that. What harm is in it? Most people want to have purpose and to be contributing to society. So most will continue to work. The ones that don’t, so what? They are in the minority.

I think this pandemic has exposed the huge flaws in capitalism. That the rich get insanely more rich, and the poor insanely more desperate.

The people who resist basic income are the uber rich because they want to enslave people. Their employees. There are very rare exceptions to this.

What if people could no longer be enslaved? What kind of revolution would we see in the working world? I envision a much safer, freer, compassionate working environment. Why do employers feel they must control their employees like they are children? If they have what they need, are treated like adults, and enjoy their work, and have respect for their bosses, a good job will be done.

What kind of revolution would we see in fixing the global messes we have of pollution, climate change, despots, dictators?

Before you dismiss universal basic income, give it a lot of thought how it would affect your life. What would you do with it? Make a dream come true? Go back to school? Quit your soul sucking job and do something you enjoy? Donate the money to charity? Volunteer? Work less hours and contribute more to friends, family time, strangers?

Obviously, the money has been there this whole time. It just hasn’t been used properly.

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Whine, Whine, Whine

Okay, I have to get this off my chest.

I am SO sick of trump whining, whining, whining. Poor little baby. Mistreated by the press (he gets what he deserves), misunderstood, whining about hoaxes, conspiracy theories. Everybody out to get him. No one gives him the respect and credit he deserves. The boy fucking genius who thinks shooting up lysol can cure a disease. Someone stick a soother in his mouth to shut him up. Oh, he is so hard done by. Poor, poor little baby. Time to change your diapers little baby.

Tweeting racism and hatred and misogyny. Insulting and bashing and belittling good people. Revering criminals and dictators. Crying, crying, crying all the fucking time. That is all he does is cry and whine. Oh, and in between plays a round of golf.

Worries about his ratings while thousands of people die. Points the finger at anyone and everyone that they are all to blame for his messes.

Won’t take any responsibility for being the leader.

He is just like a very bad boss. This is not your company, idiot. This is your country. The Government is not a corporation. Each state is not a franchise that you can close down because someone hurt your feelings. Oh boo hoo. No PPE for you!

He is a toddler that has tantrums because he doesn’t get his way.

What a whimp.

It is Mother’s day. Momma come and get this spoiled brat. We need a leader!

Is there a MAN in the house? Better yet, we need a WOMAN.

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It Is A Virus, People

I think many people don’t understand why we need to lockdown our cities and practice social distancing and wear masks and all of these cumbersome annoying things that have suddenly been foisted upon us.

If you live in a place with a population of 200,000 that has one hospital and 400 beds and a deadly virus comes and infects even half of the people, making even 1/8 of them in critical condition, requiring hospitalization, you are not going to have enough beds, supplies, personnel to handle the crisis. And many more people will die because they can’t be treated.

If you go outside and are near large numbers of people, the chances that one of them has the virus increases. Being close to others facilitates the spread. And a virus spreads fast.

If you don’t wear masks you can give this disease to innocent others without even knowing it.

And the biggie – you can DIE from this virus. Hello? If you don’t die, you may also suffer greatly while being attacked by it. Especially if there is no hospital equipment to help you.

The people you love can die from this.

These are just some of the reasons. I wish that the people giving time on television would make it more clear to their audience why it is necessary to close things down for a while.

It is not violating your rights. It is not political. These things are to SAVE your life. It is not a hoax. It doesn’t matter so much where it came from. It is not a plot for socialism. Lockdowns and social distancing have nothing to do with economics. What matters is how do we stop corona virus before it kills many people. It is a VIRUS people. We are trying to slow down its spread so we can cope with it. So we can save lives. So hopefully we can eradicate it without too many casualties. So we can buy time to find a cure or effective treatment so others won’t die. Get it?

When you get sick don’t you have to do things you don’t want to do to get well? You knew it was probably not forever, and you believed you would win if you followed doctors orders. So why is this different?

I think it would pay you to read about other pandemics and try to get an understanding of what is happening here, and realize this is not a personal attack. This is not a personal affront to your precious liberties.

Not being prepared, not doing the right thing is the affront. Not giving hospitals enough or correct PPE is the affront. Not caring is the affront.

Yes, there are profound repercussions to having to do this. But unlike what has been said by a politician, who claimed “there are more important things than living”, I happen to disagree with that statement. How about you? You want to die so the economy floats? Don’t you think that having millions of people die and be disabled from this disease is not going to affect the economy? Think about it.

This will be over. We will get our lives back. But the longer people act stupid, the longer we will have to fight this pandemic. This is a VIRUS, people.

I am also amazed at how many people can’t amuse themselves for a month. They go crazy.

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Explain To Me

Tell me how countries that pre-covid times professed to not have enough money for health care, education, pollution, the homeless, now suddenly have trillions of dollars to bail out corporations?

How is it there is no money for PPE and ventilators and beds and hospitals and . . .?

How is it they can barely give the people who work, who risk their lives daily to keep everything going, a few measly dollars a month?

How is it we could not have basic income and avoided all this mess, when clearly, clearly the money has always been there.

Explain to me.

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Lockdown

We’ve been in ‘isolation’ and social distancing for only a month, and people are whining like crazy about it.

I’d bet a month ago, most were complaining about having to go to work!

What if you were really a prisoner, doomed to solitary confinement for life?

This ‘lockdown’ is only for a few months out of your whole entire life. AND it is for your and others safety.

Hello? This virus is quick and causes immense suffering and death. Is it worth going out for a get together, a concert, a meal, a rally, a protest, something social that lasts a few hours which you can’t wait to get back home and be alone again?

Here you are in the comfort of your own home. You can have most of what you need delivered. Computers enable us to chat and see our loved ones, do our work, be creative or just waste a whole lot of time on.

We have books and articles to read. Courses to take. Hobbies to start or dust off and rediscover. Instruments to play. Movies to watch. You could completely reinvent yourself!

This is a gift of time few of us ever get. Every day is ours!

I know there are difficulties. Children mostly I have heard. Normally when you don’t see or hear from your children for 10 minutes you freak out.

I get it. Being stuck with others 24/7 is definitely a challenge.

So this is a time of zen. Accept what is happening and deal with it! What a rare opportunity for personal and professional growth!

To clean the house.

Play with our pets.

Do nothing!

Grow up. Be responsible. Change your habits and perspective. Get your creative mind to work. We all need new ideas. Maybe change the world.

If you do have to go out, and many of us do, please wear a mask and gloves. Protect yourself and keep a safe distance from others. This is no time for vanity about how you look (though some people have been mask fashionistas!).

This is not forever.