On the eve of the union election at work I have become painfully aware of uncertainty. Will we vote to be in the union or not? For months I have been telling myself how important it is to be comfortable being uncomfortable, and I gotta say I thought I was getting pretty good at it.
My friend and I were talking about words or concepts that are meaningless. Things like "normal" and "perfect" were two we could both agree on. The words mean something so different to everyone. And tonight I wonder: What is certainty? What is comfort? Are these words so relative that they are also nebulous?
What are we certain of? The old adage tells us only taxes and death. What provides us comfort? I would argue that many of the things we think provide us comfort are only habits long formed.
People will stay in an unsatisfying relationship with their dentist, spouse, hairdresser, etc. just because the thought of leaving is too much of a hassle. We cook the same six recipes because our brains don't have to work to choose new ones, remember to buy ingredients and go through different motions in the kitchen. The more I think about the things that provide me with what I thought was comfort, the more I realize maybe I've just been doing them because I've always been doing them.
I read a story about how an old spiritual teacher would tie his cat up while he was leading meditation to keep it from bothering others. The teacher died but the cat lived for a few more years, during which time it would always be tied up during meditation. When the cat died no one would meditate because they believed the cat needed to be tied up in order for meditation to be effective. They never knew or had forgotten the reason it was tied up to begin with.
Being comfortable has led to a lot of laziness. Asking why we do things and why something makes us feel the way it does may take a little work, but is well worth it. We may suddenly see why life is so beautiful and how little we need for it to be that way.
Monday, November 24, 2008
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Tips on Unions –
Unions can be very effective in establishing communication and protocols between employees and management – that’s just about it. Potential members already have the leverage that Unions are purported to provide – just ask the whistle blowers or change agents depending on what side of the fence you are. Thus the true benefits of Unions are becoming less and less prominent, while the negatives are still very much there. Why not create a coalition rather than a union. Collective bargaining is a façade if you do not believe, ask OPEC – it only works if interest of all members are aligned, which is not often the case. Human frailties do not disappear with the appearance of a Union. Ceding your right and reward for better individual performance to tote the line of a body that is often hijacked by rigid principles of seniority, everybody or nobody, and the same foibles that afflicts management may be giving up too much.
It is often more noble to fight for others as the benefit always somehow comes back to you. Therefore, let’s be for a one-person Union – it may be a better option in an enlightened or an average world.
Like an average person, could an average world also be so relative that it is nebulous? - as you rightly said about certainty and comfort. Splitting hairs over terminology and inflection and viewpoint and all the rest is natural. And very often we end up still firmly caught in the thicket of words, confused. - almost like hugging your mother with a hard-on early in the morning.
We might get some insight or get more confuse reading my adaptation of an original poem titled “Meaningless Words” from the book 'Simply This' by Liz Jones.
Everything is vague
Nothing is precise
But nothing appears as everything
So what is vague is really definable,
Which means what is vague can't be vague...
Every word is meaningless
No word has meaning
But every-word appears to be no-word
So what's meaningful is really meaningless
Which means that what is meaningless can't be meaningful...
“To be comfortable being uncomfortable”
Maybe like practicing a hybrid of consensus government of the enlightened world – Democracy and the oppressive rule of the less enlightened world - Autocracy. During the uncomfortable swing, you give airtime to all ideas fighting for consideration. But as you swing back to the other far end where comfortable is, you zero in on your pick - the majority pick. The only problem is – you are the majority.
Flipping it around - To be comfortable being comfortable maybe like suffering from a sense of entitlement – being used to getting what you want and believing that the rules don’t apply to you. Reasonable people (there I go again – whatever that means) are comfortable being uncomfortable and there is nothing wrong with that – in fact it should be a de-jure and not a de-facto practice.
By the way, if words were really that nebulous, we could not really communicate. Words are vague but discrete enough to convey its intended meaning. You are on your own from here on… as any further analysis may blow your mind away.
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