Too busy to blog! And yet....

I hate it when this happens. When work projects log jam and you just have to push absolutely everything else aside. On the other hand, I am so grateful to be working!  It's hard to believe what is happening in the USA right now. The fact that thousands upon thousands of teachers are being let go from their jobs is about as ill a wind as could ever blow.


Teaching is a sacred profession. No family, no culture, no community, and no nation can ever thrive without teachers. They are simply not dispensable.  That they are being "dispensed" in such huge numbers in Texas is distressing.


It leads me to a thought I have had many times. A huge proportion of the American economy has been built on unnecessary consumption. I am still amazed by something I see pretty consistently on HGTV.  A couple looks for just the right home, and the woman usually tells the husband that she cannot share a closet with him (And some of those closets are big enough to be an apartment in some countries) because there would not be enough room. The one that really gets me is "My shoes won't fit in here." 


That's just one example, but a quick trip around almost any department or discount store in our country is an exercise in looking at and being exposed to the overabundance of the unnecessary.  And, here is the catch:  we have been the world's consuming machine for all kinds of things that aren't necessary, from luxury cars to "Euro" kitchens, from thousand-dollar Spanish shoes to bad, abstract art, from machine-made toys to plastic bracelets.


And now, now the world's economy is becoming one...and we Americans, at the mercy of many large corporations who have shifted jobs from our shores .... we can't buy this unnecessary stuff any more.  


And more and more and more, we see our necessaries becoming cut out from under us:  firefighters, police personnel, teachers....


Isn't there, can't there be some way to let go of the unnecessary things in our lives and hold on to the necessary, the essential, the people that make our lives safe and knowledgeable?





Comments

Jeff Damron said…
Thought provoking as usual, Ysabel. I was blessed with a good number of great teachers when I was growing up, although I found most of my childrens' teachers a bit lacking. Still, that may just be the area where I live. But the mass consumption that is promoted by the majority of cable shows on these days is crazy, from bride gowns to cakes to clothes to houses - I can't stand to watch the shallow, selfish people in most of the reality tv shows. It is much better to spend one's time blogging I think. :)
Greetings! Later-in-time teachers also had / have so much more to deal with. The bureaucracy is hideous, all this no child left behind business helped nobody, the standardized tests, the need for teachers themselves to take standardized testing to get "certified," the lack of attention span of so many of their students, and parents absent from the home because they have to work .... it all adds up. I think part of the problem is that every year it gets harder to be a teacher....and there seems to be nowhere they can go for support. And for most, the salaries are just enough to get by. Not excusing any really unprofessional teachers, but .... the job has become so much harder than when you and I were in school. I, too, was blessed by teachers that were like educational guardian angels.