Questions…

Do you ever wonder why so many people are trying to escape their lives through alcohol and drugs, or any of the other things people escape into, including suicide?  Does the fact that so many people are seemingly unhappy, or lost, mean anything?  It it natural to feel that way, or are we, as a world full of people, screwing up big time?  I wonder about things like that.

We see what may be construed as symptoms, but what, exactly, is the disease?  Is it life in general?  The unfairness of life?  Is it disappointment, frustration…what?  Can whatever it is be fixed?   Is it hopelessness, the never ending wars, violence, or the belief that things will never get better?  Is the 24 hour news, full of lies, driving people to depression?  That’s actually a tactic, by the way, because if you make people afraid, or miserable, and promise to save them, they’ll vote for you, or let you make decisions for them.  You know how that turns out, right?  A lot of people seem to have given up.  Government, the church, industry…they are all failing the people.

People used to believe their lives were successful if their children were more well off than they had been.  That’s no longer possible for a huge number of people.  Is that part of it?  Is it the economy that’s controlled by the rich to make sure we’re kept poor, what’s making everyone unhappy?  I definitely think that’s part of the problem.

Is pot becoming legal to take the edge off, so that people won’t even think of looking behind the curtain, because they’re too busy chowing down on Froot Loops?

What’s going on?  Monopolies are taking over the country, retail is almost a thing of the past, our choices, while seemingly endless, are actually limited by what’s available through one or two HUGE on-line stores.  People shop from home, seeing fewer and fewer people all the time.  Are we losing touch with each other?   Jobs are getting worse, benefits cut, the top brass voting themselves raise at the expense of their employees.

I feel as if I’m watching one of those end of times films at the movies.  Grown children living in basements in their parents’ home…with their own kids.  A couple of days ago, my granddaughter, in college, said one of the guys at work, going on 40, lives with his mother and, “While a lot of KIDS do that now days, his mother still calls in for him if he’s sick and he’s a little old for that.”  I couldn’t believe she said that.  The fact that she believes that “a lot of people do that,” is so weird, I can hardly believe it.  The fact that he lived at home wasn’t as horrible to her as the fact that his mother called in for him. What?  She did say he was too old to be living with his mom.

What’s happening?  Seriously, things get crazier all the time.  This does not seem like a path we want to continue going down.  Lots of OLDER adults are still caring for their adult children AND grandchildren.   Some of them are poor or stretched to the limits with fixed incomes.

I won’t even mention the homeless people.

Maybe some of you have ideas about what’s going on but it seems that taking responsibility for your own actions is disappearing and that the things we once believed were good for self respect and life, have kind of gone missing.   Our values aren’t just changing, they are disappearing.  Standing on your own two feet, which seemed like the thing to do, doesn’t mean anything to some people today AND some kids feel that it’s better to continue living at home, rather than get  job they feel is BENEATH them.

I think we should go back to the 60s and dance in the streets, wear flowers in our hair, and take over the Dean’s office until our demands are met.  Where’s Timothy Leary when you need him.  Which reminds me, I never finished his book, I’ll have to do that.