There are moments when I wonder if I am ready for what is to come. When the fall leaves need to be raked I wonder if I have enough firewood for the winter. When I can no longer get local, fresh produce I hope that I have canned enough to last until next season. When the power goes out I hope I have stocked enough lamp oil and generator fuel to keep the family at ease and the freezer cold. When spring comes I wonder if I have planted enough of this and enough of that and I wonder if mother nature will cooperate. All of these concerns include variables over which I have no control.
Mostly I wonder if I am going to have enough money coming in to pay the bills. Because, despite the fact that my family and I are responsible for our own basic needs, money seems to always be an issue. Welcome to the modern world.
I have just learned that my present employment will change in the next couple months. This has been on the wind. I am now faced with the prospect of taking yet another pay cut or looking for work elsewhere and relocating my family once more.
In the words of Alan Rickman in The January Man, "I hate that I need money."
Curse you Alexander Hamilton!
I have worked and studied in this field for more than 20 years. I've been a professional in my current line of work for a decade. I took a pay cut to move my family back to the NW in 2008. I took another pay cut a year ago because the economy was bad.
Now the Wal-Mart model moves in and wants to cut costs more.
I live pretty simply. What, exactly, is the intended outcome of all of this?
We are taking another step back. As has always been true, this is the consequence of decisions made many years prior. We are currently reaping the consequences of bad decisions made 5, 10, 20, 25, 30, 40, and 55 years ago.
Sometime in the not-too-distant future (I hope), We The People will re-engage our leaders and begin to lead us all out of this obsolete complacency.
In the meantime, I have some decisions to make.
Perhaps we all do.
*Sigh* and damn. Damn and *sigh.*
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