Shh! It's not nearly 8 AM in England. You can't be Punk-sutawney Phil at this hour.
Another bright, sunny, and warm day in Brighton. Of course I'm going to spend the morning writing indoors!
I woke up this morning and immediately started contemplating my life. Most people would probably make the bed first:
But I think its important to take things one at a time. Style, or a lack thereof, makes a man in others' eyes. In that regard, my life so far has been a showcase for the blind. Ha!
Back on message, I'm beginning to wonder whether staying here is a truly good idea. In reference to yesterday's message, yes, I don't really enjoy a lighthearted approach to traveling, and for what it's worth, could live in a saucier, more exotic environ than southern England, like perhaps the cool teaching job along the 38th parallel in South Korea that I reluctantly turned down, but as a friend reminded me yesterday, beggars can't be choosers. Sure, it would be great to snorkel around the Great Barrier Reef (if that's legal) or spend a fortnight with Bedouin tribespeople in North Africa, but you've got to crawl before you can walk, before you can run. I have yet to get a job.
At this point, really any sort of position will do. I had an interesting time working in a factory last year, but as far as I can tell, that position is still available. Hard to believe that people still work in factories in the 21st century. It was the sort of experience that is reminiscent of classic cinema from the silver
screen:
Fritz Lang's Metropolis, 1927
What's most humbling about working in a factory is the knowledge that people from all over the world earn a living doing this full time. From Cambodia to Senegal, people labor in factory settings with varying degrees of safety. In England, of course, conditions have improved greatly since the 19th century. I saw no children monotonously toiling away, and if they were, they were very well hidden.
No, the people I encountered were mostly adults from around Europe, a diverse grouping of folks which included post-graduate Brits, traveling Spaniards, job hungry Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Frenchmen, and Czechs. There was also substantial Middle Eastern, African and Asian representation: war survivors from Iraq and Somalia, aeronautical engineers from India and newlyweds from Malaysia. Apparently, we all had one thing in common: the pursuit of Sterling. Maybe some of that Protestant Work Ethic stuff as well.
I haven't spoken much about this experience because frankly, I found in my conversations with people here, no one really found it amusing or particularly fascinating that a university graduate from America was laboring as a migrant worker. Then again, tell that to the husband from Bangalore studied jet propulsion at Sussex or the professor from Essex with a PhD in chemistry doing the same. Hard times fall on all people, no matter their nationality, social standing or circumstance.
That's right, I have no class or nationalistic sympathies. From what I see in Britain, there is no blanket understanding of poverty by those distinctions. I encountered as many people from Latvia assembling boxes and stuffing crates as I did painting at St. Martin's College in London. Anyone who works a shoddy job knows that they always have choices in life, no one is putting a gun to their head to toil (at least in the West.) In other countries people are often threatened with violence for not working hard enough on the job.
That's not to say, of course, that the work is somehow enriching or enlivening. It's simply necessary, and that's the bottom line. When a person agrees to do factory work, they are soberly reminded of the situation, the monotony, the long hours and occasional pains. Who cares! It's a Glengarry Glen Ross world, get used to it, right?
Wrong. As far as I'm concerned, all people are entitled to live like fat, useless and excited slobs - gluttonous, lazy, and happily stimulated. Aside from the physiological, environmental and socio-pathological entanglements associated with such a lifestyle, I believe that everyone has a right to live well, and however they please, provided they harm no person. I suppose if I was very PC I would also include every living thing, but I'd rather not ride a train of principles to logical oblivion. Soon I'll be demanding equal rights for bacteria.
Of course, I don't believe in deprivation, socialism or any sort of transient means of stealing from one group of people for another's benefit. Kind of stupid, if you ask me. What I do support is the highest standard of living for all people, all possible emanicipations and freedoms for the individual (that also harm no person), and apparently, no one left to foot the bill. Wish I could tack that on my CV!
Aside from dogmatically promoting my idealism, I'm also going to start doing online surveys for cash today. I know, it's the Hollywood Squares of employment, but honestly, it's worth a try. If it means I can work from a houseboat in Indonesia, I will.
On a totally unrelated note, today is the birthday of Mike Pniewski, a truly inspirational gentleman who writes great literature and who has also had numerous roles in American films such as Ray.
I suggest you add him as a friend on Facebook immediately, your soul will be far better off for it.
Happy Birthday Mike!
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