It Won’t Solve it, but it’s Worse than That!

Originally, I read the article below and thought to just publish it with a comment about how I was right.  If minimum wage at fast food places went up to $15 an hour, the menus would be so pricey we might stop going.  Yep, that was the goings on of my argument from the first installment of fast food problem solutions.  Granted, that one is tongue in cheek.

Now, this one is serious and it is talking about the problem of raising minimum wage to $15.  Now, I found something new to pick on here, but let’s look at a couple of ideas before you read:

1)  $15 / hr minimum wage will rip too deeply into the pockets of the restaurants, the customers, and the stock holders.  All three of these will suffer, the last two because the only recourse the restaurants will have is to either lay off employees or raise prices.  Now, that’s bad, but here is collateral damage.  If you are working a $15 an hour job right now, you should be fairly happy with yourself.  You are being paid a decent salary and doing more than the minimum wage guys.  What happens when it goes up?  You are, certainly, not going to get an $7 an hour raise to compensate.  Nope, now you are working just as hard as before, but only making minimum wage.  That’s going to make things frustrating and I predict that a lot of people will find minimum wage jobs where they don’t have to do so much to earn the money.  Just an opinion.

Okay, now lets get back to your assignment – 4 minutes of reading:

What happens at $15 is only the beginning…

Done?  Well, to see my next point we have to go back to the “comments” section because that’s where my story takes place.  The quoted sections below are from the article you just read:

“disqus_C67ZJ9pNj6

If you are an adult and are still flipping burgers, maybe you should reevaluate your career choices. These jobs were never intended to be a life long career, they are entry level jobs.”

There is always one, in my opinion; there is always someone who has to pick and call the person – slow or ignorant or something (inferred).

“druid0621 James Reed

Not everyone can be successful. Low wages should be an incentive to get an education or skills – and then a better job.”

“James Reed druid0621

Honestly, you and the 64 people who thumbed you up, you have no idea how the world actually works. Some people don’t have the opportunity to just ‘get more skills” then magically, poof! a better job comes around!

I know many people who went to school to “get more skills” where are they? Working a 10 dollar per hour job.”

Ah, the voices of reason.  They say it just as it needs to be said.  Not everyone can do this.  Great if you can, but don’t down the other 90% who can’t get the job.

I won’t go into the comments any more, but YOU SHOULD.  You should read the next 10 or 20 and see how bad these people bash others who are in a position where they are having financial difficulties.  It is cruel and heartless.  I know there are people out there who waste their lives whining about things they could do something about.  Sure there are.  But there are also those who are in this position or that position because they are trying or have tried for so long to get it to work and haven’t been able to.  Yes, I believe anyone can use intention and the abilities of our mind to change their surroundings, but not everyone understands, and not everyone has the fortitude to push through without some major help.

What makes me burn is not so much that I agree or disagree with any of it.  It makes me upset that people seem to have no more compassion, in general, than to kick someone when they are down.  If you pressed through, bucked up, and are now making good money at a good job, how wonderful for you.  But, we can’t all have those jobs; there aren’t enough of them.  If everyone had those jobs, then there would be no fast foods and no low-level entry work to do except for a very short time by people on the move and our society doesn’t work like that.

Just have a heart!

What do you think? (the article had over 800 comments!)

Namaste,

Scott

Getting Back to Normal, at least, for Me…

I have not been myself over the last few weeks.  I look back at my posts and see that many of them were not very good, were not concerned with my main ideas here:  writing and feelings.

I have been trying new things out on here and some of them have failed, some miserably so.

Oh, the views may not have gone down, but I did notice how much higher they were when I stuck to my two aims.

I have been working on defining my blog – again.  I tend to change things up (ADD at work in an adult, I suppose).  I tend to forget what I started my blog for – a chance to help others see value in themselves.  I have expanded that concept, added to it.  Now my blog is supposed to run on a bit of a schedule:

Saturday-Wednesday is supposed to be a mixture of something that bothers me, something that amazes me, and something I feel.  Thursday is Friday Fictioneers – a chance for me to change and hone my writing abilities.  Friday is Five Sentence Fiction – another opportunity for me to write a bit more but still hone my skills.  It doesn’t always follow that exact schedule, but that is the deal 5-1-1 (5 about things, 1 about FF, 1 about FSF).  It was a good schedule and people liked it.

But, I gave in to the damned aspect that life changes (who’d have thunk it?).  I started feeling better and doing more outside of my blog; I started getting tired – again.  This led to late days, nights without much sleep, and posts having to be done in a rush, at night, when I was tired.  I began to S-L-A-C-K.

I can explain it to myself; I got too busy.  I am doing too much.  My days are filled, so my nights are squeezed.   I even got a little to the point that I felt pressured to do my blog posts.

This came to a point in the last few days when I did see my views drop (perhaps, due to the holiday coming up, but I prefer to use it as a lesson).  I rushed a couple of them and chose topics that, well, sucked.

So, here I am, trying to get back to normal.  This post is about feelings.  I feel terrible; I feel as if I have let you all down.  You follow me and I didn’t deliver as per usual.  So, here I am, back to it – feeling and writing about it.

What I will try to do is keep back to my original 5-1-1 plan.  The 5 may include some posts about movies; it may be some poetry; it may deal with some things that don’t come across as “feely”; however, I will tell you that my intent will be to show myself to you – through my views, my poems, my writing, my reviews.  And, I always want you to play a part in it.  I love hearing your responses.  You are my family and I thank you for putting up with my “boring” lapse into meaninglessness.

I will endeavor to stick to my plan and give you all feelings to deal with.  I will show myself in my writing and remember that you are not my audience – you are all, each and every one of you, someone I care for and feel  as close to as I can, given what you share back with me.

Namaste,

Scott

I am Learning about Me and, sometimes, It’s Sad.

I was reading a post by resilientheart.  In it, she speaks of an article on Dementia.  It is an excellent article (click on the word for the article) and I encourage you to read it.  She said it was beautiful and, perhaps, it is.  I came away from it sad, but not for the reasons anyone would think of after reading it.  At least, I doubt it.

This is a more difficult post for me to write.  It’s not particularly funny, nor does it lift up spirits, mine or yours.  As I am writing this, I get sad.  I guess I can hope it is life pointing me in the right direction, but it may also be my mind beginning to accept the life I am choosing.

I seem to be in the process of setting myself up to be rather alone in my twilight years.  I am not searching for sympathy here.  The one thing I really do for myself with this blog is share myself so that I can release a lot of it into the universe.  I am told it helps others.  That’s good; what is rough for me becomes a little easier if it lifts someone else’s burdens.

(The pic above was attached to a really good article on being alone: here it is.)

Anyway, I have set myself up.  I have guided myself to the point that I believe I no longer wish to be married, no longer have an opportunity to have someone to share with on a constant basis.  Even now, my mind is saying, “Yes, and that is a good thing.”  And, to a degree, it is.  Not the “not sharing” part, but the idea that I will be more independent and able to do the things I want to do more of without being told, “No.”

But, there is a sadness attached to this.  There is nothing wrong with being alone; however, there is something wrong with being lonely.  A man in a crowded mall can be lonely.  Lonely is when you miss having someone to talk to, someone to be around.  There is a huge difference also between sharing with a good, close friend and having someone to share your life and love with.  Nothing wrong with the good, close friend, but there are differences.

The article made me feel sad this way, I think, because I thought about what it might be like to have true Dementia.  My stroke has taken bits and pieces of my memory, but I have enough of it to be able to walk through life.  I may have to fudge a bit sometimes with some people, but it’s not usually much.  If I can’t remember something they think I should I remind them of my stroke and ask a few questions.  We can usually come to terms with it all.  But, if I could remember nothing of, say, my children’s births or growing up.  If I no longer recognized my sister or mother or father, then what do you do?  That led me off into the “you are going into a future without someone” deal.  Is that different?  Is there a way to have that life and be okay with it?  Or do you have to become a hermit?  I don’t want that.

This pic is from a site in which the person deals in pictures with all the problems and good things about being alone. I am not like that; it made me feel, somehow, better. Click on the link for the site-> Here <-

I am going to stop before this post takes off on some tangent and is no longer recognizable as what I started out.  I just wanted to share with you that, while I am positive and happy and know that God watches over me, that still doesn’t mean I never get sad.  I have changed; I am not scared; I am not nervous about it; just sad.

Does it make any sense?

Do any of you feel similar?

Does your being married cure that?

Namaste,

Scott

My Try at Tanka

A Tanka is a special type of formatted poem.  It is similar to a Haiku, but longer and the lines can be just a bit different.  Lady Day does this type of poem.  She showed this link as to what it is all about:

http://www.tankaonline.com/Quick%20Start%20Guide.htm

If I understand it correctly, it is not so much about a season as it is about the way you experience something and the way you feel about it.  I tried my hand at three of them below.  I would truly like to know what you think.

_

Seeing my small son

Hearing his cry in my heart

Wonder about life

Life would change day after day

Can I handle this all time?

_

Feeling my first kiss

Tasting sweetness in my heart

Should be forever

Sweetness often leads to love

Want to always feel this way

_

Sleeping through the night

Feeling good in the morning

I miss this past thing

Waking fresh is ecstasy

The day goes fine and forward

_

Namaste,

Scott

Just a feeling!

I was having problems trying to figure out tonight what to do my post on.  It has been a long week, in fact a long couple of weeks.  I did manage to get into the Christmas spirit and have a good time.  My father did end up at the ER on Christmas morning, but is much better now; thanks for the prayers.  My computer is back, kinda, the way it was.  I have a new monitor waiting for me at Walmart along with a copy of Windows 7.  Now, if the blizzard conditions would let up, I could go get them.  My learning curve has been the highest I have had since I was in rehab for the stroke.  My cleaning person helped me redo my computer room and get ready for my hosting the family New Year’s Day mid-day meal.  I even discovered that Roku, my television program provider, has a great number of stations I didn’t now about.  So, now I can work on my laptop and watch some great shows.

So, there you have the last couple of weeks all summed up in a single paragraph!  The interesting thing is it has all seemed so busy for me.  I had gotten used to doing things a certain way, not quite a rut, but just, well, yes, I guess a rut…So this all changed everything.  I remember now how it feels to be a little rushed and trying to do several things at once.  I know a lot of you do things like this all the time.  We are a society in which we are expected to do a lot of things at the same time, do them well, and still have time for other things.  I used to be this way when I was working.  My entire life was rushed and full and there never seemed to be enough time to get it all done.

I guess this Christmas, this holiday season, I will be thankful for several things.  I am thankful that I am alive.  The stroke I had was one of those that, percentage-wise, people don’t survive.  I did and I thank God for that.

By the same token I thank God for that stroke.  It slowed my life down; it caused me to reevaluate nearly everything.  My life is totally different now.  I don’t rush through things; I take my time.  I walk slowly; I bend slowly; if I don’t, I know I will fall; I will get hurt.  My stroke changed the way I act and the way I think.  I enjoy it more now.

I am more thankful for my family, for my friends, my life, and my blog.  It truly is a wonderful life.

I know this post seems to be all over the place.  But it’s not, at least, inside my head.  In my head it is all about love, friendship and love.  This is the time of year in which love becomes very important, very central to what’s going on in life.  What I wish for you all is that you slow down and take the time to see how much can pass you by if you let it.  I am in a different mood tonight, but, perhaps, that is for the best.  I feel this is important to share for someone, so i will.  Whoever you are, know that I care and that I want the best for you.

Namaste,

Scott