You don't realize how much time goes by until you're so busy and look back and see that months have gone by without a post. I'm so sorry! With birthdays, Thanksgiving, Halloween, more birthdays, the Holidays and dealing with elderly parents' problems and sickness... before I knew it we hit a new year and I hadn't posted in five months! I feel horrible.
It's not so much big things, though there have been a few of those, but sometimes we get overwhelmed with a mountain of little things and they just take over and we get so busy trying to deal with them and getting our life back in order that we forget to do other little things that keep us healthy, happy and going strong.
It's too easy to become overly stressed and start to suffer anxiety or panic attacks or depression. And it's sad to say that that's how things are now. More and more people are so frazzled by trying to survive that they forget how to live. We don't eat right, we don't sleep right, we don't remember how to just chill and take it easy. More and more of us are medicated, over-worked, about to burn out and it's not right. Even kids are now suffering depression and anxiety. Suicide rates are up, everyone is on some kind of medication for some problem and families can't get time or energy to get together like they used to.
Is this really how we wanted it? Is this really what we envisioned for our children and their children? I don't know about any of you, but I wanted my children to not have to suffer the difficulties I had, to have a good life where they were secure and happy and healthy. And I wanted their children to have even better than that if it was possible. Instead, it's like I set them on a collision course with hell in a hand basket that has holes in it! And it's not necessarily my doing.
Higher costs for rents, utilities, food, healthcare, etc... and less jobs, less pay, more taxes.... People working 60 or more hours a week who can barely make a living. New math and new ways schools are trying to educate where now kids cannot even turn to their parents to help them understand when the teachers are too busy to do so. Not everyone learns at the same speed or level. But they expect them to, and if they don't and act out from frustration and stress they want them medicated because obviously they're a problem. Most college grads can't use proper grammar or spelling anymore. Hell, most people can't write cursive anymore because no one wants to try to decipher their writing. "Who cares about knowing grammar and spelling, spellcheck will do that for me." I remember being told by the principal of the school that if my children couldn't use the computer to do their homework they'd fail. I had rules. They had to earn their computer time, and they only got an hour. I didn't want them dependent on the computer to do it. But the school had other thoughts. Instead of homework where they had to look in a book for the answers they were expected to go online to find it. I refused. The principal gave me that speech. I told him they'd fail then. I had rules for a reason and I refused to bend them for a school system too lazy to teach them properly.
Parents stressing over how to pay bills and keep food on the table and dammit, suddenly Charlie needs braces and Pamela's school is demanding she get new indoor shoes with white soles so they don't leave marks on the floor. And don't forget to pay their school fees and you haven't gotten all their supplies yet. Pamela is upset because she has to still wear some of the clothes she wore last year so other students are bullying her for it, and Charlie's friends are trying to push him into using weed because it's not as bad as other drugs and everyone does it. Grades are going down and kids are getting attitude because they're only kids and it's not supposed to be THAT stressful and parents are getting warnings and the boss is getting fed up because they had to miss work due to problems with kids and....
Is it any wonder we're all worn out and so uncaring of what the hell goes on in the world anymore? "I have my own problems." So we don't care about the big things that we should be outraged about. I've said it many times; that leaders were changing laws and using media to dumb down the populace because if you're worn out and can't think for yourself then you can't oppose them when they oppress you.
Don't believe me? Talk to people. See how much they understand. See how much they give a crap about real issues. See how dumbed down they sound when they talk or in their beliefs. It's sad. It's scary. It's real. It's happening all around us, but we're too busy being worried about how to survive to really notice.
