2 posts tagged “values”

I have spent most of my life waiting for that unspecific moment in the indeterminate future when 'everything' is going to be 'all right'. By 'all right' I mean 100 percent to my liking, not morally improved. And by 'everything' I mean having enough money, enough friends, and my dream house. I have devoted all of my energy to exploring every avenue I could imagine might raise my life to such heights. I have fallen spectacularly short. But just yesterday I stumbled on a very liberating realization. 'Everything' is never going to be all right. I don't say that with any maudlin or angry or self-pitying nihilism. It's just the truth. Planet earth, people. 2008. 'Everything' will be what and however it is. Now. I can face, enjoy, curse, experience, delight, despair, abhor, feed off, grow from, etc. what is now. Or I can keep my gaze calmly on the ever potential horizon and always be dissatisfied with both my current circumstances and the failure of the idealized future to arrive. I am, for the first time in my life, ready to embrace that former approach. Everything in my life is all right. Because it is what I have right now, and in this moment I cannot make very much different. But if I keep working on them certain things will probably change. And that has to be success enough. Because the outcome is not guaranteed. Only my efforts are. I celebrate this realization because it is helping me to focus. I want a lot of things from moment to moment and I indulge those whims sometimes. But I often lose sight of the big picture. Instead of running around balming the twin disappointments of not having what I want now nor having any promise that it is coming. I want to take a longer view. What does it take for me to enjoy now? What can I do to make later different in the ways I most desire? I have to answer the questions I asked this morning. What do I want? What are my values? How am I going to stand up for them and create the life I want? Those are fun questions to answer : D

This past week I took time off from work to help my brother and sister-in-law care for my sick, new nephew. He is healthy now. Hallelujah.

During my time at their house I came to reflect on the incredible devaluation of the American Worker. Businesses are constantly trying to cut costs by cutting, jobs, benefits or hourly wages. Workers are constantly trying to prove their value by putting in more time and getting less and lower quality compensation. For both parties, improving the bottom line is the only, constant and receding goal. For what great end have we let our nation's values come to this? How do we correct it?

I am not versed in Studs Terkel or labor research or labor history. I know I am not having an original thought here nor an eloquent or developed text, but I am having an awakening. As surely as the dollar is worth a pittance compared to it's value a century ago the value of a U.S. worker's labor is also diminishing. And all in the chase of an empty ideal. The 'American Dream' is made of smoke. It dissipates under the stiff breeze of reality.

Ask yourself what you really want in this life. What is it? How much of it do you already have? What more do you really need and what is it worth for you to obtain it?

We all have to take a stand for each other. It is time for a large scale labor movement in this country. It is not simply about rights or a better paycheck, it is about quality of life and value of your time and efforts.

Learn something today about where our labor situation came from. Confirm your values and stand up for them. Shape the way work in this country will be done tomorrow. You're worth it!