My car insurance company is screwing up. I hit something on the freeway last night. It made a hole in one of my panels in the front on the passenger side. (Smart cars have snap on-snap off panels for easy repair). It also made one rocker panel fall off and my black bumper is mangled. I called and reported the accident to my Smart Car. I even had a conversation with the woman on the phone about how it is a Smart Car and body damages are handled simply by snapping the damaged panel off and pressing a new panel in place. I gave my policy number and all info on my Smart Car.
This morning, I get an email from the insurance company that Immortal Pirate’s truck was reported damaged and the insurance company will cover it.
Immortal Pirate and I have separate insurance policies —– as we are both single and separate —- yet, live at the same address.
We had to call in and make sure they knew it was my Smart Car that was damaged and not Immortal Pirate’s truck. With our policies being separate, I don’t understand how they could mix-up the vehicles involved.
@luftballooneyegouge Well, the hippy was acting like a tire in the road and whipped rubber marks on the side of my rocker panel brackets as it ripped my rocker panel off.
The insurance inspector agent pointed out things I did not notice before. THEN, I get handed paperwork that says the Smart Car I bought in 2009 and paid cash for — so it is mine and I am the registered owner (since two years before I even met Immortal Pirate (Emery Park) on SoulPancake) is now listed as a car belonging to Immortal Pirate, according to the insurance company. Boy! I threw a shit-fit angry rant at the insurance inspector. They changed the wording on the paperwork, but I have to go into the office where I got the insurance and get this changed.
I work in a very large company. Within the company there are business units, the one I am in is Technology. Within Technology there multiple organizations. There’s one in particular called “Enterprise” and it’s kind of in charge of keeping the other technology organizations in-line.
The issue is the Enterprise organization doesn’t move as fast or freely as the other organizations, and Enterprise is of the mindset that they rule the world.
So, in terms of bureaucracy, if things were fixed or modified to be faster moving from the enterprise, this would greatly improve the ability to innovate across the technology organization as a whole.
Working with the Enterprise organization is much like going to the DMV, where many times a 3rd party DMV will be much more faster, streamlined, and accomplish more.
Something I fight against daily. I even have a pretty important meeting in an hour and a half on it. :-\
I am fortunate that I only have to deal with the bureaucracies that are common to Man!
Which means probably the same ones that you have to deal with. ( but as an international trucker I have to deal with them in two Nations! And one of them really really really loves their bureaucracies )
And I would dare say that if they did not exist, we would not exist.
Because it seems at times that we exist to create them for any and all aspects of life!
@griz Even so! What do you call angels vs. demons? Heavenly bureaucracy! In fact this idea is clearly seen in the parable of the unforgiving servant! Bureaucracy stated that instead of being able to make amends for his mistake (of throwing the other servant in prison) he suffers the same fate. The wisdom of solomon would probably go something like this: You know I forgave you what was owed to you. It was both unfair and evil of you to throw your fellow servant in prison. But instead of multiplying evil and having 2 people in pain, I offer you a choice that will determine your fate: release your fellow servant, and work it out with him – or outright forgive him and we’ll discuss what you did further, and where your heart was when you did this! The very nature of a bureaucracy is that it doesn’t care why what was done was done, only the punishment (i.e. the law) needing to be meted out!
Why does just consequence for wicked action, vex you so?
This Parable is even more poignant because he had been shown mercy for a proverbial million dollars; but could not show the same towards someone who owed him the equivalent of a chocolate bar!
Why is just consequence for action freely taken — even after being shown a better way — SUCH an anathema to you?????
@griz the concept is “2 wrongs don’t make a right” – the idea of eternal torture for any crime is abhorrant – even *more* so for something as petty as money, which god has no need of!
@griz there are plenty of people who simply don’t understand because they’be not been taught, people who can’t learn because they’re mentally disabled, those that need to be beaten over the head with a stick to understand, and those who are too young to understand. All the above categories, if the bible is true, will end up in hell. The problem at day’s end is that what you call foolishness is what I simply see as a giant misunderstanding. I have a feeling that the person didn’t understand the concept of forgiveness for whatever reason. Basically, he feels that he still owed the money, and saw a way he could pay back at least something of what he owed… but simply took the wrong tactic of going about to get it.
@Jear77
There is a critical difference between not understanding and actively resisting understanding.
There is a difference between a child who cannot read in an adult who persists in mis-reading.
There is a difference between someone who seeks Truth, in someone who seeks only to affirm what they feel is truth.
The answers are there. They have been grasped by ancients, Primitives, children, and people with far far fewer assets than we boast.
And for eons the answer has remained ” hidden in plain sight” to those who approached it with an impure heart. ( and the human nature that invented religion suffers from the same impurities that it did in Jesus time)
Jear: you made a prolonged religious attempt despite the Bible talking at length about its folly; and are now stuck in a loop of looking for someone to blame.
You followed a “wide path”. Remind me again what the Bible says about the wide and the Narrow Path?
@griz It goes back to a god that is far, far too picky, too stringent, too narrow minded, too unable to change, too rules bound, too holy (and wholly) “other” to accept anything than things that are his will. Life is simply not like that.
@Jear77
Actually you are describing us as a species!
Religion is our creation; so there is zero surprised that a relationship with it would give you this perspective.
The only thing he is picky about, is the savior we seek. You tried religion; and to do so set aside in selectively blinded yourself to much of Christ’s Gospel and the spiritual Kingdom it inaugurated. (You got stuck in a religious legalistic Kingdom)
Even now you seem a little surprised when I present them to you in a slightly different light then most churches try to teach.
And once the first step is properly taken care of, and we don’t just sit and stagnate on that, all of reality to the very ends of time is ours: so long as we remember we are heirs and not God ourselves.
Jear! You are the quintessential man who went to Aruba and had a bad experience: and now you becry the evils of Patagonia everywhere you go!
@griz Look at the 10 commandments. Almost Half of them deal with who god is!
1 – no other gods
2 – no representation artwork
3 – respect for god’s name
4 – respect god’s day
The other half
5 – respect for elders, specifically parents
6 – respect for sexual purity
7 – respect for personal property
8 – respect for the truth
9-10 don’t covet things or people
But then look at the holiness code! And the rest of writings of the new testament.
I know it boils down to “love the lord your god with all your mind, soul, strength and might. And love your neighbor as yourself” But there are decidedly those who should not be counted as your neighbors! ALSO with the fact god’s actions are questionable it begs the question why we should love someone who gives us a choice of love or hell. Then there is the concept of god that demands everything of a person – and we should obey out of love. because he first loved us. But that seems hollow because the system was designed to have mankind fail to begin with. There was literally no way for mankind NOT to sin. And now we’re back to the Stockholm syndrome again of a relationship with our captor god. So everything you’re saying is utter nonsense.
@Jear77
What are your thoughts on Paul calling the Old Covenant (including “the 10”), the “ministry of death, written on stone”? Or the assertion that “the letter kills, but the Spirit brings life”?
Yes. One should definitely question the actions of a God who gave us life, gave us free choice so we could exceed the rest of the animals, and gave us wonderfully functional way to proceed on this quest!
You are angry. I get that.
But you constantly burn yourself and the process of religious works that you tied your salvation to by trying to hate on God, but coming up with diatribes against “god” that are just describing the fallen aspects of human nature!!
The anger and hatred in you is what reinterprets the Truth as utter nonsense. It’s a lot like depression where the illness actually actively blinds its victims to where healing lies.
@griz that means that paul should view his OWN writing and letters into question. And yet, ironically enough he does not.
And keep in mind I have said time and again that no one asks for life, the problems, the responsibilities, the burdens, the happiness associated with it. And you can’t prove a person in utero has a choice otherwise. Babies would probably stay in their mother’s womb forever if that were a true choice because there’s nothing they need to do there. That’s like saying the moment sperm hits the egg, the result is fully cognitive as an adult and can make all choices associated with life.
I’ve also said in the past that the god who created things to be this way had the ultimate choice in how the universe would be… and he chose this system needlessly. It’s sick twisted, warped to say “oh, I suffered so I can comfort others.” Better neither party to have suffered than to need to be comforted or the need to comfort.
@Jear77
Have you even read them? Paul DOES submit his own process to scrutiny several times.
How do you know, that nobody asks for life? You stubbornly maintain that there is only physical (and therefore, only death). You continually close your mind to there being anything remotely spiritual. So if this “asking” happens in a spiritual reality, you would not/could not/should not be able to acknowledge it lest your constructs crumble.
And SHAZAM! I think you’ve hit the lazy nail on the stubborn head! We would likely choose to stay somewhere where there is no work to be done, no expectations to fulfill, nothing but immature juvenile bliss.
Take this to heart. Your responses show that you KNOW the answers to your questions; but are just too blissed-out and stubborn to leave the womb.
(Keep in mind that such a physical reality left to proceed, would almost always result in the death of both the mother AND the child).
Your “pout” about God making things this way when He could have made them any way, is little more than someone pouting that the sky is blue instead of yellow for no reason other than they like yellow better.
And if things were suddenly, magically transformed to massage your expectations . . . you are the kind of person right now who would likely find fault with that too.
Also, I’m hoping you’re taking as much note as to the questions you are dodging as the rest of us are!
@griz actually the statement he causes the question 1 Cor 15:19 “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” I have come to the conclusion that it is the case and the hope is nothing provable so therefore christians are to be pitied!
@Jear77
I am not surprised that you only find in the Bible that which you personally treasure. It’s a huge bias to bear. Let’s look at that verse in a different translation of the Bible:
1Cor 15:19 If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. (The Message)
What did you get out of Christ?
For how long?
As a friend I’m hesitant to connect these dots for you. But they need to be connected. Someone who didn’t like you wouldn’t bother; and someone who hated you would try to use it to destroy you.
Hope is not “provable” . . . if we never get beyond “wishing”.
@griz We still can’t contact the dead (as in the previous conversation). Moreover, we’re not allowed to do so. So the point is moot! And since we ALL die, we won’t know until we “bite the dust” and since no one’s (unless they’re insane) suggesting that people speed up the process, we’re at an impassable deadlock here.
@griz Then why aren’t billions upon billions of people attempting suicide daily? Every person who did not hold to the true christian faith would attempt to take their lives at least once daily if that were the case.
I know people may do self destructive behaviors, but there are those who aren’t christian and do stuff like visit the doctor and dentist, exercise, make sure they always eat properly, meditate, take appropriate medications for their health problems, seek mental health help when needed, and talk to their friends about their problems to get different perspectives. If a person were truly seeking death, they’d never do any of the above!
Moreover, I don’t think I’d WANT to contact the dead. What would they have to say new? And even if they could communicate with me, AND did have something new to express, what relevance would it have for my life? Because they’re no longer among the living, whatever they might be able to say would have zero relevance.
@Jear77
Perhaps one simple thing: the “fear” of one’s Lord! (With the observation that a negative Lord spawns destructive fear; and a positive Lord constructive fear. Chances are excellent you’ve sat in on many studies identifying just what this “fear” is — positive and negative — from a primitive context)
Thoreau observed that most people live lives of quiet desperation; half dead, and somehow yearning for death while still fearing it. Or they dwell in constructed fantasies that help them avoid this uncomfortable conundrum. Much trepidation at the moment of one’s death, comes from fantasies that don’t hold up against the harsh reality of what is about to happen.
A question then: if you don’t crave contacting the dead . . . why did it become a part of the construct you are trying to build against God???
@luftballooneyegouge
Actually the random peeing in a bottle is not nearly so bothersome as the infernal “hours-of-service”. It can have me 30 minutes from home with a blizzard pending, but I still have to stop and let the storm overtake me and leave me with hours of treacherous driving the next day!
Or “require” me to stop for a 30-minute break, when 15 more minutes would see me to a factory to unload (which is like a break once your load is un-secured). Oh, and while you were taking that “required” break the factory closes for the weekend and you have to baby-sit a load in an inter-city truck-stop in Philadelphia where the bullets are as thick as mosquitoes!
at work there are the directors and the managers and then there is the team. the worse of that is that there is so much separation btwn each level, even tho what one does or decides effects everyone else. which can be good or a disaster… and when disaster looms the big trouble shooters are brought in. i kind of like these guys, i dont think its a bad thing to see these guys around. thats when everyone does their jobs to par and tries to show how good they are at it :D if only that would carry one after the fact!
there is another form of bureaucracy i face on rare occasion. sometimes the expenses of having a dependent are hard for one working mum to keep up with. like emergency dental care. btu i live in a province with some really great programs for kids in this sense. i mean i guess i could find a 3rd job to afford his dental care but thank goodness i havent had to, thanks to these programs. i am not on assistance, and that makes it ironically harder to get a little extra help on occasion. i dont Use the system, btu i will make Use of it when i really need to. again, i dont mind the process although sometimes i would prefer to be treated like an equal human being, so this is the thing, in this situation, life would be harder without the end result, but some of the attitudes make it feel worse. make it so people hesitate to seek help that is available already. but whatever, in the end it is for a good reason, the best reason… so i can stomach a few snide comments and looks….
32 responses to “B is for Bureaucracy”
My car insurance company is screwing up. I hit something on the freeway last night. It made a hole in one of my panels in the front on the passenger side. (Smart cars have snap on-snap off panels for easy repair). It also made one rocker panel fall off and my black bumper is mangled. I called and reported the accident to my Smart Car. I even had a conversation with the woman on the phone about how it is a Smart Car and body damages are handled simply by snapping the damaged panel off and pressing a new panel in place. I gave my policy number and all info on my Smart Car.
This morning, I get an email from the insurance company that Immortal Pirate’s truck was reported damaged and the insurance company will cover it.
Immortal Pirate and I have separate insurance policies —– as we are both single and separate —- yet, live at the same address.
We had to call in and make sure they knew it was my Smart Car that was damaged and not Immortal Pirate’s truck. With our policies being separate, I don’t understand how they could mix-up the vehicles involved.
@ladybarbara
It’s the karma you get for runnin’ over a hippy!
@luftballooneyegouge Well, the hippy was acting like a tire in the road and whipped rubber marks on the side of my rocker panel brackets as it ripped my rocker panel off.
The insurance inspector agent pointed out things I did not notice before. THEN, I get handed paperwork that says the Smart Car I bought in 2009 and paid cash for — so it is mine and I am the registered owner (since two years before I even met Immortal Pirate (Emery Park) on SoulPancake) is now listed as a car belonging to Immortal Pirate, according to the insurance company. Boy! I threw a shit-fit angry rant at the insurance inspector. They changed the wording on the paperwork, but I have to go into the office where I got the insurance and get this changed.
I work in a very large company. Within the company there are business units, the one I am in is Technology. Within Technology there multiple organizations. There’s one in particular called “Enterprise” and it’s kind of in charge of keeping the other technology organizations in-line.
The issue is the Enterprise organization doesn’t move as fast or freely as the other organizations, and Enterprise is of the mindset that they rule the world.
So, in terms of bureaucracy, if things were fixed or modified to be faster moving from the enterprise, this would greatly improve the ability to innovate across the technology organization as a whole.
Working with the Enterprise organization is much like going to the DMV, where many times a 3rd party DMV will be much more faster, streamlined, and accomplish more.
Something I fight against daily. I even have a pretty important meeting in an hour and a half on it. :-\
@Weenis
You need to become the bureaucracy over and joining the two, or Jesus will be disappointed that you didn’t take charge all alpha & shit…….
@luftballooneyegouge interesting concept, but I don’t follow.
@Jear77
….me neither.
I am fortunate that I only have to deal with the bureaucracies that are common to Man!
Which means probably the same ones that you have to deal with. ( but as an international trucker I have to deal with them in two Nations! And one of them really really really loves their bureaucracies
)
And I would dare say that if they did not exist, we would not exist.
Because it seems at times that we exist to create them for any and all aspects of life!
@griz being a believer you’re actually dealing with 3 :-P
@Jear77
If I was a believer in just a religion, or a rule-book, or the works of my own self unto personal redemption, I might agree!
@griz Even so! What do you call angels vs. demons? Heavenly bureaucracy! In fact this idea is clearly seen in the parable of the unforgiving servant! Bureaucracy stated that instead of being able to make amends for his mistake (of throwing the other servant in prison) he suffers the same fate. The wisdom of solomon would probably go something like this: You know I forgave you what was owed to you. It was both unfair and evil of you to throw your fellow servant in prison. But instead of multiplying evil and having 2 people in pain, I offer you a choice that will determine your fate: release your fellow servant, and work it out with him – or outright forgive him and we’ll discuss what you did further, and where your heart was when you did this! The very nature of a bureaucracy is that it doesn’t care why what was done was done, only the punishment (i.e. the law) needing to be meted out!
@Jear77
Why does just consequence for wicked action, vex you so?
This Parable is even more poignant because he had been shown mercy for a proverbial million dollars; but could not show the same towards someone who owed him the equivalent of a chocolate bar!
Why is just consequence for action freely taken — even after being shown a better way — SUCH an anathema to you?????
@griz the concept is “2 wrongs don’t make a right” – the idea of eternal torture for any crime is abhorrant – even *more* so for something as petty as money, which god has no need of!
@Jear77
Foolishness is its own punishment in the long run.
And no good can come from coddling fools.
The solution is not for some “Mighty Parent” to create a cushier safety-net for fools.
The solution is to not be a fool.
@griz there are plenty of people who simply don’t understand because they’be not been taught, people who can’t learn because they’re mentally disabled, those that need to be beaten over the head with a stick to understand, and those who are too young to understand. All the above categories, if the bible is true, will end up in hell. The problem at day’s end is that what you call foolishness is what I simply see as a giant misunderstanding. I have a feeling that the person didn’t understand the concept of forgiveness for whatever reason. Basically, he feels that he still owed the money, and saw a way he could pay back at least something of what he owed… but simply took the wrong tactic of going about to get it.
@Jear77
There is a critical difference between not understanding and actively resisting understanding.
There is a difference between a child who cannot read in an adult who persists in mis-reading.
There is a difference between someone who seeks Truth, in someone who seeks only to affirm what they feel is truth.
The answers are there. They have been grasped by ancients, Primitives, children, and people with far far fewer assets than we boast.
And for eons the answer has remained ” hidden in plain sight” to those who approached it with an impure heart. ( and the human nature that invented religion suffers from the same impurities that it did in Jesus time)
Jear: you made a prolonged religious attempt despite the Bible talking at length about its folly; and are now stuck in a loop of looking for someone to blame.
You followed a “wide path”. Remind me again what the Bible says about the wide and the Narrow Path?
@griz It goes back to a god that is far, far too picky, too stringent, too narrow minded, too unable to change, too rules bound, too holy (and wholly) “other” to accept anything than things that are his will. Life is simply not like that.
@Jear77
Actually you are describing us as a species!
Religion is our creation; so there is zero surprised that a relationship with it would give you this perspective.
The only thing he is picky about, is the savior we seek. You tried religion; and to do so set aside in selectively blinded yourself to much of Christ’s Gospel and the spiritual Kingdom it inaugurated. (You got stuck in a religious legalistic Kingdom)
Even now you seem a little surprised when I present them to you in a slightly different light then most churches try to teach.
And once the first step is properly taken care of, and we don’t just sit and stagnate on that, all of reality to the very ends of time is ours: so long as we remember we are heirs and not God ourselves.
Jear! You are the quintessential man who went to Aruba and had a bad experience: and now you becry the evils of Patagonia everywhere you go!
@griz Look at the 10 commandments. Almost Half of them deal with who god is!
1 – no other gods
2 – no representation artwork
3 – respect for god’s name
4 – respect god’s day
The other half
5 – respect for elders, specifically parents
6 – respect for sexual purity
7 – respect for personal property
8 – respect for the truth
9-10 don’t covet things or people
But then look at the holiness code! And the rest of writings of the new testament.
I know it boils down to “love the lord your god with all your mind, soul, strength and might. And love your neighbor as yourself” But there are decidedly those who should not be counted as your neighbors! ALSO with the fact god’s actions are questionable it begs the question why we should love someone who gives us a choice of love or hell. Then there is the concept of god that demands everything of a person – and we should obey out of love. because he first loved us. But that seems hollow because the system was designed to have mankind fail to begin with. There was literally no way for mankind NOT to sin. And now we’re back to the Stockholm syndrome again of a relationship with our captor god. So everything you’re saying is utter nonsense.
@Jear77
What are your thoughts on Paul calling the Old Covenant (including “the 10”), the “ministry of death, written on stone”? Or the assertion that “the letter kills, but the Spirit brings life”?
Yes. One should definitely question the actions of a God who gave us life, gave us free choice so we could exceed the rest of the animals, and gave us wonderfully functional way to proceed on this quest!
You are angry. I get that.
But you constantly burn yourself and the process of religious works that you tied your salvation to by trying to hate on God, but coming up with diatribes against “god” that are just describing the fallen aspects of human nature!!
The anger and hatred in you is what reinterprets the Truth as utter nonsense. It’s a lot like depression where the illness actually actively blinds its victims to where healing lies.
@griz that means that paul should view his OWN writing and letters into question. And yet, ironically enough he does not.
And keep in mind I have said time and again that no one asks for life, the problems, the responsibilities, the burdens, the happiness associated with it. And you can’t prove a person in utero has a choice otherwise. Babies would probably stay in their mother’s womb forever if that were a true choice because there’s nothing they need to do there. That’s like saying the moment sperm hits the egg, the result is fully cognitive as an adult and can make all choices associated with life.
I’ve also said in the past that the god who created things to be this way had the ultimate choice in how the universe would be… and he chose this system needlessly. It’s sick twisted, warped to say “oh, I suffered so I can comfort others.” Better neither party to have suffered than to need to be comforted or the need to comfort.
@Jear77
Have you even read them? Paul DOES submit his own process to scrutiny several times.
How do you know, that nobody asks for life? You stubbornly maintain that there is only physical (and therefore, only death). You continually close your mind to there being anything remotely spiritual. So if this “asking” happens in a spiritual reality, you would not/could not/should not be able to acknowledge it lest your constructs crumble.
And SHAZAM! I think you’ve hit the lazy nail on the stubborn head! We would likely choose to stay somewhere where there is no work to be done, no expectations to fulfill, nothing but immature juvenile bliss.
Take this to heart. Your responses show that you KNOW the answers to your questions; but are just too blissed-out and stubborn to leave the womb.
(Keep in mind that such a physical reality left to proceed, would almost always result in the death of both the mother AND the child).
Your “pout” about God making things this way when He could have made them any way, is little more than someone pouting that the sky is blue instead of yellow for no reason other than they like yellow better.
And if things were suddenly, magically transformed to massage your expectations . . . you are the kind of person right now who would likely find fault with that too.
Also, I’m hoping you’re taking as much note as to the questions you are dodging as the rest of us are!
@griz actually the statement he causes the question 1 Cor 15:19 “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” I have come to the conclusion that it is the case and the hope is nothing provable so therefore christians are to be pitied!
@Jear77
I am not surprised that you only find in the Bible that which you personally treasure. It’s a huge bias to bear. Let’s look at that verse in a different translation of the Bible:
1Cor 15:19 If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. (The Message)
What did you get out of Christ?
For how long?
As a friend I’m hesitant to connect these dots for you. But they need to be connected. Someone who didn’t like you wouldn’t bother; and someone who hated you would try to use it to destroy you.
Hope is not “provable” . . . if we never get beyond “wishing”.
@griz We still can’t contact the dead (as in the previous conversation). Moreover, we’re not allowed to do so. So the point is moot! And since we ALL die, we won’t know until we “bite the dust” and since no one’s (unless they’re insane) suggesting that people speed up the process, we’re at an impassable deadlock here.
@Jear77
There’s still wisdom to glean from this.
Those who think death is “almighty”, crave contact with it.
Those who think Life is “almighty”, crave contact with it.
There is a critical lesson here. We each see no value . . . in craving contact with something we don’t hold as our “almighty”!
@griz Then why aren’t billions upon billions of people attempting suicide daily? Every person who did not hold to the true christian faith would attempt to take their lives at least once daily if that were the case.
I know people may do self destructive behaviors, but there are those who aren’t christian and do stuff like visit the doctor and dentist, exercise, make sure they always eat properly, meditate, take appropriate medications for their health problems, seek mental health help when needed, and talk to their friends about their problems to get different perspectives. If a person were truly seeking death, they’d never do any of the above!
Moreover, I don’t think I’d WANT to contact the dead. What would they have to say new? And even if they could communicate with me, AND did have something new to express, what relevance would it have for my life? Because they’re no longer among the living, whatever they might be able to say would have zero relevance.
@Jear77
Perhaps one simple thing: the “fear” of one’s Lord! (With the observation that a negative Lord spawns destructive fear; and a positive Lord constructive fear. Chances are excellent you’ve sat in on many studies identifying just what this “fear” is — positive and negative — from a primitive context)
Thoreau observed that most people live lives of quiet desperation; half dead, and somehow yearning for death while still fearing it. Or they dwell in constructed fantasies that help them avoid this uncomfortable conundrum. Much trepidation at the moment of one’s death, comes from fantasies that don’t hold up against the harsh reality of what is about to happen.
A question then: if you don’t crave contacting the dead . . . why did it become a part of the construct you are trying to build against God???
@griz hyperbole.
@griz
DOT doesn’t make me pee!
@luftballooneyegouge
Actually the random peeing in a bottle is not nearly so bothersome as the infernal “hours-of-service”. It can have me 30 minutes from home with a blizzard pending, but I still have to stop and let the storm overtake me and leave me with hours of treacherous driving the next day!
Or “require” me to stop for a 30-minute break, when 15 more minutes would see me to a factory to unload (which is like a break once your load is un-secured). Oh, and while you were taking that “required” break the factory closes for the weekend and you have to baby-sit a load in an inter-city truck-stop in Philadelphia where the bullets are as thick as mosquitoes!
at work there are the directors and the managers and then there is the team. the worse of that is that there is so much separation btwn each level, even tho what one does or decides effects everyone else. which can be good or a disaster… and when disaster looms the big trouble shooters are brought in. i kind of like these guys, i dont think its a bad thing to see these guys around. thats when everyone does their jobs to par and tries to show how good they are at it :D if only that would carry one after the fact!
there is another form of bureaucracy i face on rare occasion. sometimes the expenses of having a dependent are hard for one working mum to keep up with. like emergency dental care. btu i live in a province with some really great programs for kids in this sense. i mean i guess i could find a 3rd job to afford his dental care but thank goodness i havent had to, thanks to these programs. i am not on assistance, and that makes it ironically harder to get a little extra help on occasion. i dont Use the system, btu i will make Use of it when i really need to. again, i dont mind the process although sometimes i would prefer to be treated like an equal human being, so this is the thing, in this situation, life would be harder without the end result, but some of the attitudes make it feel worse. make it so people hesitate to seek help that is available already. but whatever, in the end it is for a good reason, the best reason… so i can stomach a few snide comments and looks….