Thoughts on the not so good doctor

Between sickness, anniversaries and general life issues, I haven’t been talking about current events. Though there are more than enough qualified bloggers that truly cover current events far better than I could ever hope to but I gotta break my silence and talk about the Fort Hood shooter, one Major Nidal Hasan, MD, MPH. Now I don’t know about you but I generally expect a human with the initials M.D after their name to be at least as sane as I am, shit, I expect you to be even more sane than me. Add in being a psychiatrist and let’s just say I would expect that such a person would have better coping skills than me.

Well as we all know, the good Major is either certifiable crazy or dude is working for the enemy. I will be honest my money is on crazy. After all it seems when the enemy wants to fuck with us and do us harm with their sleeper cells, they pick cats who can be discreet. Since when you are planning to attack the last thing you want is pick a crazy bastard who keeps dropping hints that he about to go ape-shit and kill up a whole bunch of folks.

Which brings me to the not so good Major, from what I have read he didn’t exactly have a great track record when he was at Walter Reed, in fact quite a few folks have stated off the record, that this guy exhibited strange behavior for years. I heard a report on NPR how when he was the doctor on call, he was known for not answering his phone. Even better is the unofficial quote that if you were in a foxhole, you did not want be there with Major Hassan.

Now I admit obviously I don’t know the real deal, after all the investigation is on going. But what I do know is that there were enough discussions about this man where somebody should have done something, but apparently there were concerns about how it would look to address him since after all he is Muslim. Look, clearly as a Black woman I am all about inclusion but when you gotta guy running around in the military of all places sharing ideas that sound strangely against the US, maybe that shit needs to be looked into…right away.

If it turns out this guy really is a lone job who twisted Islam for his own fucked up purposes, I suspect there will be a lot of pissed off (hell, the families of those impacted are probably already there) folks wondering why would we let the need to be inclusive and not offensive override common sense.

Now I admit there is another part of me that wonders if the overall shortage of psychiatrists in the Army impacted the decision to look the other way and hope that Hassan was just a smidge loopy and not ape-shit crazy. I read a figure in the NY Times a few days ago that stated there are less than 500 psychiatrists in the military, if that figure is correct that sure is not a lot of head docs for folks that may need some mental health services. In that case, and that is the case I am hoping for, I could almost see looking the other way. Key word being almost, but not quite.

No, in the end as a nation we need to figure out a way to make sure we are an inclusive society that is respectful of others yet there does come a time when we have to rely on common sense. In this case there is a good chance that had one of the many folks who have talked off the record in the past week, actually taken action, 13 solders might still be alive.

Yeah, these men and women sign up to defend our country and realize death is a possibility but when they are on home soil there should be a reasonable expectation that they are safe. Better yet, they should expect that they are safe from one of their own turning on them.

Saving money…let me share

Time to make a public update on my money situation. In the end, Oct was an okay month with my money, but I think I shared that recently. What I want to share is how I have started saving cash at the store, now for some of ya’ll this is kid’s play but you gotta understand for me this is huge. Like many folks I have always poo-pooed the idea of using coupons after all, most of what I see for coupons is stuff I would never buy since we don’t use a great deal of convenience or processed items. Yet recently I have been reading more and more about folks who shop the sales and combined with some coupons end up saving a great deal.

Well times are tough, money is tight and I have a lot of plans in the coming months chiefly some trips to visit family and friends and since I haven’t seen my raise yet and still don’t know exactly what it is going to be, I know I need to reduce my spending.

So last Sunday, I actually took an hour with the sales papers from my local grocery store along with a few coupons and decided rather than making my usual grocery list that I was going to only buy what was on sale, stock up on those items and plan my meals based off what I bought rather than my usual way. Normally I make the meal plan and shop based off what I think we re going to eat.

Well in changing things up I have saved over $120 this past week and stocked up on quite a few items. Now I mentioned this to a few folks and there seemed to be an assumption that I must have a crate load of junk food. No, darling not at all. Examples of things I bought in volume only using the sales would include 5 lbs bags of King Arthur flour that I got for $2.50 a bag. King Arthur is a decent brand and generally pricier than the cheaper stuff, I now have 15 lbs in the cabinet. I also stocked up on sugar, shredded coconut and other baking goodies. I rarely buy chicken breast but the store had a buy one get one free deal on Purdue Split Chicken Breast, so I stocked up on those too.

The only processed items that I stocked up on were Annie’s Mac and Cheese, the girl child will not eat my homemade mac and cheese no matter how much I try to make it look like Annie’s and frankly there are times I don’t feel like cooking. Also the boy will be home soon, and he likes to snack on these as well, so I took advantage of the 3 boxes for $4 sale.

In the end, I spent maybe an hour and a half poring over the sales and creating my list and clipping coupons for toilet paper and paper towels. (I tried to give these up but it created more laundry and sadly juggling family and my outside job, creating more laundry is not an efficient use of my time)

I even took advantage of the new chain drug store opening up and saved a bit there on items I would normally purchase with their $10 off a $20 purchase coupon. At that store I stocked up on laundry soap (el cheapo brand I use for linens since due to skin sensitivity, I can only use 1-2 brands for my clothes) toothpaste, and other related items. The Spousal Unit has been teasing me that I have become one of those women, but I admit I kinda like getting deals especially when its stuff I would buy anyway. Yes, it took time to actually read the flyers and plan but if saving money and switching up things means I can head home for a visit soon its all good.

I admit, I doubt I will ever be the lady getting $200 worth of food for $5, since unless coupons start coming out for fruits, veggies and meat, there are still only limited items that I can use coupons for. However by shopping the sales it seems I may be able to reduce our grocery bill by at least $100 which is a plus since currently it stands at close to $600 which is a tad insane for 3-4 folks.

So I share this with you to say if this not the way you shop, it might be worth looking into, after all what might you do with an extra $100 a month?

A dozen years already…

It would appear that there is light at the end of the sickness tunnel, I am feeling normal and girl child is more or less back to herself. To say the last few days were rough would be an understatement, battling your own illness when your kid is sick, is a special type of hell. In my sick and confused state, I even let the child watch Hannah Montana…Yikes, as I told her only because you are sick.

Well now that the sun is shining and the girl was well enough to go to preschool this morning, I have a spare few minutes. The Spousal Unit and I are celebrating 12 years of marriage today. I am not writing this to get congrats messages though they are appreciated. No, I am sharing this because I am reminded that in our world, as soon as couples get engaged they spend an awful lot of time planning for the big party known as the wedding but in many cases little time planning for the day-to-day shit.

When you are standing up before your loved ones, pledging to love one another in sickness and health, for richer and poorer, who is really thinking about all that shit? Yeah, I thought so. Yet looking back on 12 years of marriage with the spousal Unit, we have had few peaceful years. In fact considering all we have endured, there are times I wonder how the hell it is that we stay married?

Let’s see, not even 2 months after we married, I became engaged in the nastiest custody battle I have ever known anyone to have. It lasted for years and at the risk of scarring my kid for life, I ended up letting him live with his Dad which of course is the whole reason, I am Black Girl in Maine. A year into our marriage, the Spousal Unit lost his beloved Mama. Looking back at pictures from our wedding day and members of the bridal party, we lost his Mom, my Mom, my Granny and my Maid of Honor. Yeah, it’s a sick joke but if you were a women in our bridal party, your chances of living long weren’t too high…gallows humor, sorry.

Of course add in financial woes that have increased over the years and the fact that neither of us ever would have thought the child we waited so long to have would be the source of some of the most intense fights. Truthfully girl child’s arrival created many tensions because her arrival in our lives happened when I was still deeply grieving the loss of my mother and compounded by the fact that my beloved grandmother died 6 weeks after her birth…yeah, its been a rough ride for us.

Yet at the end of the day, I wouldn’t change a thing…ok, maybe I would make the man still have hair. He lost that in year 6 or 7 of our marriage. No, despite the fact that our life together has not been anything that I  was envisioning 12 years ago when I was getting ready to walk down the aisle, I am still glad I made the walk and even happier that the Spousal Unit is my partner in crime in this life.

That said, when folks are getting married, I say you owe it to yourselves to think about what if your fortunes change? Are you in it for the long run? Are you thinking about that and if not, maybe you should.

To the Spousal Unit, I say publicly I love you and while I give you a lot of grief, thank you for putting up with me. After all it cannot be easy being married to someone whose list of quirks grows longer with each passing year.

Uh oh…we have been hit

Just a brief post to say that posting may be sparse for the next week. It seems H1N1 also known as the swine flu has hit the girl child’s preschool class. Now she has the sniffles and I have had an off and on fever for the past few days. Thanks to the piggy flu taking hold in her class, it’s meant she has had no school and that means even less time for me to focus on my job that keeps the dough rolling in. Thankfully times like this make me glad I have the job that I do since taking time off is not an issue. Thanks to my wonderful staff that actually does the hands on work, I can do a good part of my job from home while we wrestle with illness here.

So, until we are healthy and well, I probably need to let some things slide since right now my chief job is head of in home entertainment for one overly energetic kid who hates being home bound. Catch ya when we are well and stay healthy friends.

The day after….

My little state doesn’t make the national news much, after all with a population of only 1.5 million, it’s a pretty small state. Yet today all the nation is abuzz with the fact  that the gay marriage law was repealed, it’s been pretty heart breaking because many know Mainers to have an independent streak and felt confident that the law would not be repealed. Yet the vote while close in the end the folks who were against it prevailed….

Today, I have seen many online and real life buddies express anger and disgust over the situation and a feeling that those who voted against upholding the law which had been passed by legislators were small-minded bigots. While it’s most easy to lay the blame squarely on the fact that folks are small-minded bigots, I have spent the day thinking that is not necessarily the answer. In the end there is no answer but as someone who has spent my life as a person of difference, I find myself thinking the bigger reason people voted as they did is fear.

As a Black woman, I have come across too many instances where people fear me, see people fear what they do not know. In my years in Maine, especially in the early years here, I have seen the faces of people who have looked at both me and my interracial family with fear. Fear because maybe the only ideas they have of Black folks are those flashed on the tv, images that show Black women as screaming bitchy shrews. Images that show our children as less than manageable, images that show our young men as perpetrators of crime. After all even in Maine, the nightly news half the time shows the alleged perpetrator as being Black, granted this is better than when I was in Chicago. Back home, the alleged perpetrator was Black 9 out of 10 times.

Yet the longer I live here, the less I see that fear. I go places where folks once looked tentative when I entered and now I am greeted with the same greeting that others receive. I know that Mainers are capable of embracing those who are different from them yet it takes time and exposure to build those relationships.

Maine is a fairly homogenous state, by and large there is little in the way of diversity here. I think for many of those who entered the voting booth and voted yes on 1, they were operating from a place of ignorance and fear. Ignorance because in many cases they don’t know anyone who is gay or lesbian, they don’t realize that just like they want what’s best for their families that gays and lesbians want the same thing. I think for many the images they have of gay and lesbians is steeped in bad stereotypes of the images that flash across the screen during gay pride time of men wearing ass-less leather pants. I realize that sounds bad yet as someone who grew up going to gay pride parades in Chicago, I have seen my fair share of gay folks who are flamboyant and while there is nothing wrong with that, the fact is it’s an image that can come across as negatively as images we see that portray all Black men as being the perpetrators of crime. In the end, we cling to those images and never allow ourselves to get to know the gay and lesbians who are mothers, fathers, workers, etc…folks just like us. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know gay marriage is an issue I have grappled with because of my faith, yet in the end it has been knowing gays and lesbians and their families that truly changed my mind. It was seeing that their families are no different from my family, it was knowing that less than 50 years ago, there were folks who thought I did not deserve to marry my husband, that changed my mind. In the end we all want what’s best for our families.

So we let the fear take over, fear that is played up by those who take our ignorance and twist it for their own agenda. In Maine, the opponents started saying gay marriage would be taught in school, as I can imagine, there may have been those who started thinking of images of their children being exposed to men in ass-less chaps and who decided that was enough to make them vote to repeal the law. In the end is it right? Of course not, but its the only explanation that makes sense to me. People bought into fear instead of using reason. It’s funny because Maine is not even a terribly religious state so the argument about religion being the reason for this decision doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. No, it’s gotta be fear…fear of the unknown.

I don’t know what the future holds but I do believe that if we start to see people as people and accept and respect them for who they are, that we will break down the walls we have put up that divide us.  Sadly change does not always happen as quickly as we want but that does not mean it won’t happen.

Random observations on the C folks

Must be in the air, but since as I wrote in my last post gay marriage is on the ballot up here in Maine. You can imagine what the propoganda is like on both sides.  Last night I fell asleep listening to a commercial where the anti-gay folks were saying if gay marriage becomes a reality here that the society could die out. Since apparently the function of marriage is to have kids…um, that may have been the case in 1950 but more and more heterosexual couples are choosing to either not have kids or are greatly limiting the number of kids they have. Yet we have more and more kids being born whose parents are not married. So, I am sorry but that argument is a tad weak.

Switching gears though, I want to comment on a growing trend I have noticed at least here in my neck of the woods. many of the die-hard fundamentalist style Christians, are frankly crazy. I was just joking with the Spousal Unit that all the “true believers” I have met in my 7 years in Maine, frankly scare me.

A few years ago we were attending a start-up church that was initially non-denominational, the pastor and his wife were young and seemed sane. Well they were until they decided to change up the program and become Pentecostal without telling us, we had to part company over speaking in tongues. Now being that this is a small town, of course you run into these folks and you are only a few degrees of separation from one another. Well the wife of Mister Tongue Speak considers herself a bit of a fashionista and well she befriended a fellow who happens to be gay; well her husband, Pastor Crazy Azz, put his foot down and banned his wife from being friends with the gay fellow. Um….how many layers of crazy is that?

Now if that wasn’t bad enough, I witnessed this weekend being in a space with the two servants of God who are always cordial when I see them but I was chatting with a dear friend who happens to be gay who they know, and you know what that these Christ like followers did? They ignored my buddy, like he wasn’t even there.

I admit this post is a vent about that situation and hope my friends don’t mind me posting but I have a reason. Look, but if you want to be Christ like, well treating folks like shit is not the way to go. I daresay that such behavior most certainly isn’t going to win any souls for Christ seeing as how even I as a Christian with evangelical leanings finds such behavior offensive.  In fact a deep reading of the bible without any background would make a logical connection at least for me that Christ was loving and caring in almost all his interactions with others. There are a few places in the New Testament where Jesus is less than gracious but by and large he sought out folks who were on the edges of society. He treated them with love and respect, he did not resort to petty behavior to condemn them.

So if I were one of these Praise the Lord types…you know the ones. Ask a question and they answer it with Praise the Lord, yada yada. I might work on being a decent person because I cannot see how on judgement day, you can say well Father I carried out your work but I was intentionally mean and hurtful to others, since I only hung out with folks who were just like me.

I am reminded constantly of Paul’s words in Corinthians ”I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase” I have made a choice in my life to know all kinds of folks and to let the light of Christ shine in me. I rarely talk Jesus and God with folks unless they ask me. The only time in recent years, I made an exception is when one of my dearest friends who is an agnostic was talking suicide. I shared my faith and how its gotten me through and told him I was praying for him. He later thanked me for that discussion when he was feeling better and we have never discussed it again. I never feel the need to tell folks unless we have that type of relationship that I am praying for them. Why should I? Other than to make others feel bad or feel that I am judging them, why should or would I? In the end I think it can do more harm than good and make others avoid me like I avoid Pastor Crazy Azz and others of his ilk.

So I guess I am wondering how and why folks are so off track about how to be Christ like? Seems the Bible is clear instead people are running on their own agendas which I think fuels the anger and hostility. In current day society, there is nothing wrong with difference but I think we need to be mindful and respectful of others.

Note: I recognize that I have many readers who are not Christian, but this post was written from my Christian lens.

How an Evangelical came to support marriage equality

It’s election season up here in Maine, and the hottest issue on the ballot is gay marriage. See, our legislators voted to allow gay marriage earlier this year but the anti-gay marriage folks decided they were not happy with that and long story short it’s now going to be voted on by all the good folks here in Maine next week.

I must say this is perhaps even hotter than the presidential election with passions running high on both sides, hell even my neighbors have signs in their lawn letting the world know they are only down with traditional marriage meaning one man and one woman. I find their signs funny in a sad way because while I like my neighbors well enough, I have heard enough of their fights to know if they were the poster children for straight marriage, I would drop the Spousal Unit real fast and find myself a lovely lady. To say their relationship is dysfunctional is an understatement, so why they care about what two consenting adults do seems silly when they really don’t even do their marriage well. (to the neighbors, please close the windows next time you have one of your arguments)

Anyway close personal friends know that I call myself an Evangelical Christian despite the fact that my present membership is with a very liberal United Church of Christ church…old habits die hard I guess.

I am going to say that once upon a time, I was against gay marriage. Why? Well because in the churches that I used to attend it was said to be a sin and totally against God’s will. Well a few years ago, when I was feeling the pull to apply to seminary (still grappling with this but that’s another post) I started to truly read and study the bible on my own. After all if one is going to seriously consider seminary I figured I need to get real intimate with the Bible.

Well after a couple of years of studying, my own conclusion and I admit for the sake of writing this post in the time I have available I am not going to quote specific scripture but if anyone wants to know where I am getting this from, let me know and I will come back with verses that I am getting this from. It’s only in the Old Testament that speaks explicitly against same-sex relations, there is no denying that the Old Testament came down pretty much in what today would be called the anti-gay camp.

However using the bible as the basis for being anti-gay and if one is a Christian then we cannot ignore Jesus and the New Testament. Jesus was radical, his purpose in coming was so that salvation was obtainable to folks by belief in him. (yes, I know I am simplifying this) At the end of the day Jesus was about love and very much against the hypocrisy that was running rampant in his day and still runs rampant in many Christian communities today.

Yes, there is talk in the New Testament that marriage is an act that is between one man and one woman, but at the same time I think the New Testament is not scripturally clear and at best is ambiguous on the issue of gay marriage. But at the same time the overarching theme to love one another is very clear.

So for me from a scriptural basis, I cannot come down and stay silent and use my faith as a tool to mistreat each others. I told the Spousal Unit the other night that maybe I am misreading scripture but I just cannot get myself worked up about gay marriage. Not when I see so much abuse and mistreatment in the world.

Here in Maine, gay marriage opponents are saying what about the kids, if gay marriage becomes law? Well I say what about the kids now? In my professional work, I see a shitload of kids who are the product of heterosexual unions and frankly their lives are not so great. Funny because I can say personally the kids I know whose parents are gay or lesbian, often times have parents who are a lot more loving and attentive.

The other reason why I as a Christian, have a hard time with this issue is that as part of an interracial couple, it wasn’t that long ago that folks used the Bible to prohibit marriage between people of different races. Often times sounding the alarm with the question “What about the kids?” Well my kids are just fine, thank you very much. A couple years ago my son liked a girl who liked him, but her Dad was against interracial unions and he told my son that he had to be messed up because he was half white and half black. Yes, my first marriage ended in divorce but we were young and not compatible, race was not that much of a factor in the demise of our relationship and it most certainly has not hindered my son’s development in any way.

So when I go to the polls here in Maine, it will be No on 1 all the way because marriage equality is about equal rights and in America no one has the right to shove their religion down anyone else’s throat.

What does education mean to you? Please answer

I have written at various times on the issue of college education and each time I get some comments that I think are really deserving of hearing independent of any post/rant that I have going on.

So I ask you the reader, what does it mean to have any education? What does it mean to be educated? What do you think of our current system of education in the United States?

Personally some of the most brightest and intelligent folks I have ever met never stepped foot inside of a college. At the same time, all but one of those people have struggled greatly in the world of work because we have a system that for better or worse only sees those pieces of paper otherwise known as degrees as being valid. The one person that I have known who has not struggled has white skin privilege along with the privilege of being male and coming from an upper middle class family.

So this individual whom I have known for almost 20 years has been able to work creatively outside the box and create his own destiny. Yet even he has pushed his offspring to not take the path he has because at times its been hard to make his way financially in this world having made the conscious choice to not go to college. It wasn’t money that made him decide against it because his family had the resources to send him to college. He just felt that his life was better served by not going but by living life.

I have known too many people though who have struggled without a degree, many  in my own family. My father being the prime example. My father is a true renaissance man yet middle management was the highest he was ever allowed to climb without benefit of the almighty piece of paper. At times it has made him bitter but he has tried to not let it get him down. Yet it’s hard to see a person elevated over you when they have less knowledge and the only thing they have you don’t have is a piece of paper.

 I had the pleasure of starting my own world of work experience sans any degrees and after years of working for less cash than colleagues who had degrees, and being denied advancement opportunities on the basis that I lacked a degree, it’s the only reason I went to college and later graduate school.

Personally for me college, especially attending as an adult was a true learning experience. I have always been a voracious reader but college really opened my eyes to different ways of seeing the world. That said, I see life and living as a way to learn, if we pay attention to the world around us we are constantly being opened up to new experiences from which we can glean information.

Enough though about me and my thoughts, tell me your thoughts on education.

Speaking of cash

Since my last post touched on career frustrations, I figured it’s time to give an update on how that not spending thing is working out. Well it’s been better than previous attempts but my son getting his own car has put a slight cramp in my planned budget. No, I did not buy him a car, that honor goes to his Grandma. In fact he has a nicer car in some respect than the Spousal Unit and I. It seems when one procures a vehicle they need gas  money, and since elder boy has been busy with his studies and the lead role in yet another play, he has no job.

So, that means he has had to hit Mama up for some gas money which as I explained needs to last until he gets a job. Now that his show wrapped up he has decided that working a pt job would be a great use of his time. I admit I have mixed feelings because he recently received his second offer for  free ride to a lovely Midwestern school with a decent drama program. This is the second drama offer he has received, problem is he doesn’t want to study drama in college; I have already told him we need to consider these offers. Any how he is taking a break from drama to get a job and then can pay for his own gas.

If it had not been for the unexpected car and gas money, well I would have more or less stayed within my projected budget and savings and that is factoring in the unexpected work we are doing in the Spousal Unit’s office.

This month I have been a lot more intentional with money, no drop by visits to Goodwill, thinking before I decide to grab a meal out. It would seem there is hope for me after all. Now I just have to survive the holidays, already I am working on a holiday budget and the emphasis this year is not on gifts. No, we will focus on the spirit of the holidays which I think will be more meaningful and surely keep more cash in my pocket.

That’s the latest update on the spend less front and no I have not entirely given up outside coffee but it does happen a lot less. I admit I do enjoy the times even more when I grab that latte or mocha because it no longer is a  daily given.

Following your bliss versus following the cash

Today is a day where I need to get personal, I could use some feedback from people outside my personal circle and figured my blog was the place to go.

We as a society often look fondly at those individuals who do work that literally changes the world. Yet the sad reality is that most professions (teacher, social workers, etc) that truly help people and have the power to mold people pay nothing. Instead we (general societal we) tend to compensate well those who in many cases have jobs that don’t make a great difference in the world. After all please tell me why investment bankers and poorly behaving entertainers (Kanye West..anyone?) make oodles of cash? While that nurse’s aide who changes Granny’s bed pan at the Die Quick nursing home probably doesn’t even make $10 an hour and is eligible for government healthcare benefits since she can’t afford the one’s offered by the for profit repository for old and sick folks that makes money hand over fist by underpaying their staff.

Yeah, I am in a foul mood. I know, I chose to leave the word of corporate sales to become a lowly paid human services professional many years ago. Yet I felt a deep calling to make a difference in the world. In the years since I lefts sales, I have helped women get out of prostitution, in many cases seeing them break free from substance abuse addictions and eventually become reunited with their families. I have worked with homeless men and women and helped them secure houses and jobs. I have written grants that were funded to help oodles of people and for the last year I have worked with low-income at risk youth and their families.

During the time I was doing all this good work, I went back to school and secured a couple of degrees assuming if I went the management path at least I would earn a decent living. Ha ha ha….joke is on me. Instead I have grown broker and broker, for years I didn’t pay attention to the fact that I personally was earning less than I did as a 22 yo sales rep for a major medical journal since I had the Spousal Unit’s higher earnings to off-set the fact that my personal income had dropped.

Well as journalism is no longer what it used to be and the Spousal Unit grapples with what career might work well for a middle-aged writer, I am forced to look at the fact that I have gone into great debt to get an education to work in a field where I am not even breaking even. Let’s just say the ROI on my college education was real bad.

Yet this post is greater than me on some level, after all we love to tell people to follow their bliss yet what if following one’s bliss means living a standard of living that is not comfortable? What becomes of us as a society if we all stopped following our bliss and started following the cash? I mean one only has to look at the legal profession, we now have way too many attorneys. I have known a few who despite Ivy League credentials, really were not making that much money. Now I hear for the first time in years prospects are bleak for lawyers.

How many rappers, singers and entertainers can we really support? What if college students said the hell with professions like teaching and social work? What if medical students only decided to go into high paying specialties like dermatology? What if nurses aidse decided they only wanted to be RN’s where the pay is higher? Who would change Granny’s bed pan?

If everyone who was capable of doing higher paying work (college grads) what would become of our society? Personally I think it would be a fucked up place, the more I think of it, every job should be deserving of earning a living wage. There is a lot of talk about living wages, but we typically only think of those low wage positions like janitors, home health aides, etc. What about the fact there are plenty white and pink collar jobs that are absolutely needed but don’t pay a living wage considering many of these positions require education beyond high school, hell some require masters degrees.

At what point does one say fuck following your bliss and instead says show me the money? This is what I am grappling with at present, when do I say enough is enough and become a good worker at the good worker company where they will pay me a living wage, hell they will even offer benefits but they will require my soul to stay in their good graces.

So what say you?