I had an uncle who served in the Korean War and then later in intelligence tell me to work in the private sector. Working in the government will just frustrate and disappoint you. He then told me life really is about love and survival. You do what you have to do to survive and if you find love that’s a nice bonus and if you have love in your family and with good friends that’s nice too.

My whole life I’ve heard constant complaining about how unfair the world is and how it could be made better but the reality is the few that hold power are really good at divide and conquer. They get the public arguing or things or distracting them with endless choices of trivial things while they own the raw resources, the banks, the politicians and the courts. This monopoly of power has gotten worse in my lifetime and so has the social division.

So what does this have to do with you? Everything. You have to understand the dynamics to survive because remember it’s about survival. How much can you really change? Not that much and life is short. How old are you and how many years do you have left?

The church? Just another thing in this crazy world that came into you life and you have to decide what to do with. How much influence do you have on the church? Not much. What happens to the church is mostly up to what the leaders do. The government. Has come after the church before. Once because of the Mountain Meadows Massacre and two the mining Barron’s used their political influence to have the government go after the church leadership over polygamy. The church managed to survive all of that and the resulting financial problems.

Life is too short. The church will end up where it ends up and it has plenty of money to make mistakes and influence people.

You just look for live and survive. And if you find love and survive well you did well.

I agree with a lot of this, but that doesn't mean we should not look for opportunities to push back on government, religion and corporations where we can. If they have no checks and balances, any one of them will take all the power and resources they can.

The quality of the lives of our children may depend on us taking action over apathy.

Rule of black letter law is lost in this country. The enforcers sit on their hands and dept heads choose what to enforce.

The country as we knew it in the 70s, 80s. 90s early 2001 is gone. Never to return.

Mental illness and propganda 24/7 today.

I had no idea you were a Cyndi Lauper fan.

Ah, yes, the golden age of America. Gordon Geckko ascendant.

There is only so much control we have. I'd say that the love I've found in my life is my children and my dogs. My parents. My siblings are okay for the most part. I do have a boyfriend who I love. My kids come first though. I expect his kids to come first.

It gets discouraging to watch how things go. I have not so very long of a time left I think. Maybe 12 years as both my parents died at 76. Doesn't mean I'll die then, though. The aunt I least expected to live long, died at 91.

I get really discouraged with all that goes on in my own "little" world. Yesterday, my therapist's calling service called with a cancellation and I took it. It was crazy around here, but I went anyway. I just talked. He asked me why I keep going when I have so much that drags me down and I said I have no choice. He has told me many times in the past that I do have a choice. I was taught to keep trying, to work hard, very, very hard. I watched my parents. My mother had a rough life and she never quit. Neither did my dad. Life isn't what I expected, but there have been good things, good surprises.

Life can be unfair at times.The only way my wife and I stay sane is avoiding most of the social media and TV (we don't own one). The kids are not a problem which is nice but there are old friends who turn into different people and some relatives who become nuts.I never say anything mean to these people, I just don't engage.

On a related note, my ex-TBM has now become a holocaust and Sandy Hook denier. You just can't engage in a conversation with those people. (My children think she is nuts)

Rubicon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And if you
> find love and survive well you did well.

If you find love you survived well.

+1

I have coffee.

:) DB

There are 8 Billion people on the planet.

You can rage against the machine, and some have a talent for that and make a difference. Most of us have other talents that won't change the minds of the ruling class.

But remember there are also thousands of machines to rage against and one person's malevolent machine is another person's army of god. One person's life saving vaccine is another person's poison. One person's hard earned sanctuary is another man's evil empire. It's all moving targets and most of us aren't sharp shooters. Wait. Was that a duck or a groundhog? Which one am I saving? I forgot.

So those in power wear us down; make us realize how futile kicking against the pricks is. Those at the top aren't even clever enough to do that on purpose. Our helplessness is only a by-product of their selfishness. But it works--abetted by our enemies Fox News and Extreme Religionists everywhere. Of course we are their enemies. Makes us equals somehow.

"One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do." Well unless you are an extreme introvert. Then, not so much.

but I became that way over time. I'm weary of the insanity that goes on out there, so I prefer to stay to myself more and more. It used to bug me to work at home. I did have one job where I could get out of the house and I did, but now I wouldn't if I could. I prefer the company of my dogs.

The two biggest surprises of my life was having twins and having dogs. My twins have caused a lot of STRESS in my life, but I'd do anything for them. My dogs have been the joy of my life. Susan asked once years ago if our kids would have a problem with it if they knew we loved our dogs as much as them and my reply was, "My kids expect me to love our dogs as much as them." Difficult to lose them, but one of my mottoes is "Once you've loved a dog, living without one is a life diminished." I did find a lot of love in my life, just definitely not where I thought I would.

I work in Government and while it is frustrating and disappointing at times, it is also rewarding, fulfills my needs and helps me to survive in these crazy times. It is strange however, seeing millions of square feet of leased office space sitting vacant as Covid mutates into Delta and vaccine resistant strains. We are learning how to live with this silent killer in our midsts.

You won't be able to change everything in your little corner of the world (we all have different agendas after all), but you can choose, say, a specific area where change may be possible if one bands together with others. As a totally blind person, I have managed some success in making life a little better for myself and others like me when working with other blind and visually impaired people and our friends and allies to achieve goals. Though I know there is a lot that we probably won't be able to do (certainly not in my lifetime), I'm choosing to stay focused on the things that we can change and hoping for the best.

It brings me peace to have online friends around the world with whom I chat in German, Spanish, and English. We share simple stories about real people and I always walk away feeling inspired.

I retired from government service in 2017, 21 years in the military, 22 in civil service. I'd disagree with the observation that government service will just frustrate and disappoint. I wish that EVERYone could work for the government, the only American workplace where people get looked after to the extent I'd expect: Good and available medical insurance, a very healthy 401K -style savings program, females getting the same treatment as men, executive-grade women running large wings of the government, etc. In normal conditions, it's everything you'd hope for from an employer.