It's Sunday, and there are another million things to get done today... and tomorrow, and the day after, and next week, and next year.

I went to see a friend a couple of days ago — she has cancer — "fitting her in" between a couple of appointments I had to go to. She looked — to no-one in particular's surprise — exhausted, as battling cancer tends to do that to people. It's a very visual representation of one's existence simply wearing a person down.

Although she was the tired one, she remarked "I hope you get to take a few days off, soon... you look worn down!"

Quiet creekside

What We're AWARE of... and What We Can Actually DO About It...

I remarked... as I have done to people for the past 30 years or so... that I "hoped so," as well. As I spoke those words, I also realized that the likelihood that I would actually have any time off anytime soon are pretty close to zero, as has also been the case for the past 30 years or so.

My relatives back in Denmark don't really understand the reality of my life in the US of A. It's a reality in which more than one-third of the population of the world's (allegedly) "richest country" work around the clock and still can't afford the basics of their lives.

United Way's ALICE Project has been tracking and mapping this growing trend for some years now, which is basically a graphic measure of the nation's "Working Poor."

Red autumn leaves...

The "Illness" of Creeping Elegance...

It's easy to throw platitudes at this sort of thing, but there's really a deeper social "disease" at work here.

For example, in the downtown of our small city, many of the old buildings have offered fairly reasonable apartments for people to rent; the very people who typically have been the show keepers and restaurant works who keep the tourist industry — the financial lifeblood of our town — running.

But the renovations that are happening are turning the previously affordable apartments into "luxury condominiums." Which, I suppose, I wouldn't have an issue with if people were lined up waiting to buy them, but they are not... instead we have buildings with empty condos few people can actually afford to buy, while the people providing the services here are getting poorer by the minute because they now have to commute in from increasingly distant affordable neighborhoods.

Reality: The "gentrification class" whose dollar everyone is competing for is actually much smaller than the facilities, products and services being offered to them!

Tree top silhouettes

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

I recognize my own exhaustion. And I recognize that I choose to bust my butt at several self-employment projects because there are few — if any — actual jobs I am qualified for that would pay enough that we could afford to keep living in our house.

Some of our peers — people in their 50's and 60's who own their houses — have been selling their houses and moving away to places with lower qualities of life, for no other reason than not being able to keep up with property tax payments that have been rising 10-15% a year.

Their wages and salaries sure as hell aren't rising 10-15% a year...

Well. 'Nuff said. I didn't really set out to write a moany-groany post... I just wanted to make a passing remark about feeling... weary... because it doesn't feel like there's ever a moment to just stop.

And that does wear on you, after a few years...

Thanks for reading!

(Another #creativecoin creative non-fiction post)

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Created at 20200105 18:35 PST
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