Displacement.......

Displacement activity from doing the ironing, but also displacing some hot words from a list.... "Sheep Thrills Lite" as Freyalyn tells me some call it, which is mildly amusing, unfair and typical of the sort of snotty thing that drove me from Sheep Thrills ultimately.
But the new list is talking politics, reasonably well, but it is getting a little.....Towards the right. I should - and perhaps could, but I don't think I am going to risk it - take issue, but have decided instead to vent a little steam, or indeed hot air, here, which is after all my own space, and even here I'm not going to be overly bombastic! What has tipped me over is some talk along the lines of "everyone who really wants to work can get a job". Sorry, sweethearts. That just ain't so. I have known - and know - more than one person whose mental health has prevented them from working, no matter how hard they tried. Maybe they get a job of sorts, but eventually, the psyche overwhelms the will and the body and there is a gawd-awful crash. Each time it gets harder for people to pick themselves up, and each time it gets harder to get the next job. Never heard of the cv, or references? Just why, Ms X is there a two year gap in your career record? Oh...Don't ring us, we'll ring you.
Then there is moi. It is true that these days I do do some work....I teach, as much as I am asked. I don't really know how it happened, but it did, does and for the present, is just fine (I could go on at some length here about the downside, but will leave that one until later.) Having proceeded to get the wrong sort of education after my original career choice changed the rules and I had tried my hand at self-employment (another no-no, as prospective employers really dislike someone who has had responsibility and independence in that sense) I tried very hard to get a job, applying for all sorts of things at, above and below what might have been perceived as "my level". Employers are not keen At All to take on anyone with a degree in sociology, a post grad certificate in Peace Studies and a defunct qualification in librarianship who is over forty, overweight and speaks in an RP accent (I do realise that this would not be an issue in the US, but there is probably some other factor that replaces it.) In other words, you have to Fit. And I didn't, don't and hope I never do, except that some of those jobs I would have liked and could have done, and done well. Starting to teach was not a path that I set out upon, or chose - I seized the opportunity when offered, but before it was, it was out of my control. It is simply not true that there is always a job out there, cleaning, waiting tables or whatever. If you don't look and sound right, the employers won't consider you.
Well, that was a nice little rant, wasn't it, eh? Having come to the conclusion that I have been whining about some stuff of late, and having vowed to do better - this! Well, makes a change.
I have, by the way, decided that what ails me is twofold - the weather, and having to go pick up my father's ashes tomorrow. On this I will expound at a later date.

Hey ho.

gw