My deepest, weariest sympathies to US friends today.
Every step forward seems to be met with two steps back for the construction of a country that actually gives a hoot about average citizens. You rarely see the state benefits given to the rich clawed back, but everyone else is expected to boost themselves out of poverty and precarity out of shame alone.
You deserve so much better than this constant dangling and withdrawing of state protections and better social safety nets. 🫂
I made it to Switzerland for [what I thought would be the worst] twelve years in our history: 1997-2010.
Little did I know, I was leaving a Paradise for "the Worsening"...
Sigh
🫂 I hear that. I live in constant precarity here, but if I ever had to go back to Canada... I don't know how I'd ever survive. It's not just that all my fields are oversaturated and I'd likely have to go into debt to acquire another Master's to reintegrate into the workforce, but also, the attitude was just so toxic in places where I lived. If I ever had to return, I would stop writing, take a quiet service post where no one knows me, and try my best to save up to leave again. 🫂
@MLClark
25 years ago, I was finishing a stint at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Genève, in which, 8 months after graduating Law School, I was helping (proofreading) draft a Treaty.
Now I'm a happy Prep Cook in a pizza resto...
But I chose to live in a very conservative area of Colorado (maybe not much longer, if Bobo tears her House career to shreds), that 99% of Colorado ignores.
(the 6+ county San Luis Valley) ...
We have more cattle than humans (14 ppl/Sq mile).
✌️
@MLClark
Now I'm thinking:
"I wrote "cattle" and showing her Bison 😜😜 She'll think I'm daffy"
That's my view southwest, at end of driveway.
What a wonderful place to land. :)
When I had to leave academia, I was crushed - felt I'd lost a huge part of my identity - but the real pain came after, when people wouldn't leave me alone at service jobs I had. Everyone wanted to know why I hadn't "made it", what I was going to do to get back... everyone & their goldfish had an elitist opinion when I just wanted to work & be left alone.
💛 I hope you found contentment in your life. That's all we really want, right? To be happy?
@MLClark
Damn 🤣🤣 im repeating myself
I genuinely aspire to what you have attained. Thank you so much for sharing the gifts of your journey, and the affirmation of your contentment in the now.
Long may it continue. 🤗
@MLClark
"Contentment" is fine...
I "climbed my mountain" by achieving, eight months after graduating Law School in 1997, that "quest" I chose.
A quest five professors scoffed at:
"I want to know how the USA sits at 'The table' ~ I want to help draft a Treaty."
Did so, from January to May, 1998.
📃📄📄
Now, I enjoy simple things, like Hot Springs.
🔥🌴♨️