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broken social scene Before I left work this morning, I had a brief discussion with my boss about a problem that had happened over the weekend. He said that the procedure detailing how to deal with the problem hadn't been followed correctly. I disagreed, which was not what he wanted to hear. Then the two of us countered one another a few more times, before I said that I would do it differently in the future. Once that exchange was over I was free to go and chat with some friends. That seems to be the trend lately. Some kind of problem will have occurred and there will be some question as to why I reacted the way that I did. Usually this postmortem lasts about five to ten minutes. Then when an understanding is reached between the two of us, I never think about it again. Maybe I'm getting wiser as I get older. ... A friend at work was commenting on all of the chaos and violence in the world. He said that he can't understand why things are as bad as they are today and thinks that leaving the country is dangerous. This was from a man who was in Vietnam during the war and saw things that I will probably never see in my life. As we were speaking I didn't disagree with him, but I suspect that the world has been a violent place for a long time, but most Americans refuse to acknowledge that fact. Americans are too self centered and are baffled when people don't envy the American way of life. Doesn't everyone want to be on an Atkins diet, drive an SUV and hope that the new sitcom Joey will be as funny as Friends? Obviously this is a gross simplification of world politics, but Americans didn't travel before the World Trade Center was attacked and now they use that as an excuse to stay home. I, however, was in New Zealand when the United States started their assault on Iraq. Once that happened I didn't feel the need to return home for fear of my life. What difference would that have made? Nor do I see myself not going anywhere next year. For me dying while visiting a foreign country is preferable to spending years in a nursing home soiling myself. |