Order of the Soul

Tags

Reflection, Soul, Spirit, Stream of Conciousness, Thought

What is this which I referred to in my last post?  Is it not obvious?  Reminisce for a second, and travel back in time where your thoughts wandered and you felt your intellect higher than it would normally be.  Thoughts aligned, images connected, and a path was revealed.  You experienced nothing short of a miracle, as suddenly you created a road through the fog with only the tools of confession and honesty to guide you.  The key is honesty to yourself.  When you accomplish that you truly deserve to be proud.

What I speak of through all this, the order of the soul, is simply the way in which a person’s thoughts work when one is mentally, emotionally, and spiritually “in the zone.”  Ideas, thoughts, reflections…they all align and suddenly you find yourself tackling deep thoughts and previously insurmountable obstacles.  These moments are those of strongest clarity, yet when we try to share them with others they appear as nothing more than a collapsing hodgepodge of disconnected thoughts.  That is because, while, in life, we constantly seek linearity and sensibility, our true nature is fragmentation and division.  We think fragmented, we act fragmented, we are fragmented.  So consider this: when you next find that your mind and soul create faster than your brain and hand can mimic you are not acting crazy.  You are allowing truth to live, and denying nothing.

Let it flow.

Edit: Apparently, this phenomenon is called a Stream of Consciousness.

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Summer Blues, Deeper Than I Thought Possible.

Tags

Blues, Depression, Inaction, Philosophy, Purpose, Summer Blues, West Wing

They’re here and I cannot rid myself of their foul presence.  It is as if I have stepped into a pit of quicksand; the more I struggle the tighter they encapsulate me in a veil of inactivity.  Try as I might I cannot pull myself out.  I realize this yet I am powerless to take action.  I am powerless because it is not The Blues I fight, but their master Motivation which I cannot conquer.  It is a foul beast, with power beyond recognition.  One might call it abstract, intangible, unreal.  I call it true, physical, ever-present.  I call it Blah.

Housekeeping at Gettysburg College

Did you know the lovely men and women who have performaed my housekeeping for the last 2 years have been paid $8/hr to clean up after some of the most disgusting people I have ever known?  Piss on the seats and floor, vomit all over the bathrooms…in some dorms even shit in the hallway.  $8/hr.  That’s not even a living wage.  We pay over $50,000 a year to go to Gettysburg College and they get $8/hr.  Wow.  They are not unionized and even my mention of the word causes them to worry about the response of the college.  “I’m not supposed to talk about that,” she says.

They clean on average 1 large building and two smaller ones, although this varies from employee to employee.  It takes, on average, about 5 hours of paid work to finish each day’s cleaning.  That is:

$40 per day
$200 per week
$1000 per month
$9,000 per year, optimistically.

Obviously it’s not full-time if it is only 25 hours per week, but it is first shift which means it rules out a lot of other work for these people.  I honestly don’t know how they do it; I would never do such a job for a mere $8/hr.  Okay, I would if I had to but I know that I can make more doing just about anything including standing around as a temporary employee in a position with no organization.  This is not a living wage, and it should be changed.  However, without the support of the constituents, in this case the students and their parents, such a change will not happen.  And how many people will fight for this knowing it will increase the cost of attendance?

My real question is this: how is it we are paying over $50,000 a year, a price, I might add, which is greater than many Ivy League schools, yet our housekeeping staff is not even making a living wage!  Mhm, this is a little unsettling for sure.

Externship

Tags

Community Energy Inc., Externship, Gettysburg College, Internship

I’ve decided not to post too much about my externship here, but I just want to say it was an excellent experience.  Basically, I learned a lot about Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) and did some market research on other green power programs.  The other extern and I presented our findings on Wednesday when we went to the headquarters and met the rest of the marketing team, as well as some of the development squad.  I really like the people and the company seems interesting although I expect that I would enjoy the development branch more than the marketing branch.  The whole experience was very rewarding and I feel like it was a great opportunity to learn, network, and strengthen my resume.  Thanks to Gettysburg College, Community Energy Inc., and especially Tess Barton for this wonderful opportunity!

Now That is a President

Tags

Charlie, President Bartlett, West Wing

President Bartlet makes Charlie’s day.

The West Wing
Episode 3 ” A Proportional Response”
Last 10 minutes

The President was in a terrible mood and had a lot of things going on and he yelled at Charlie the new kid (the black kid, aide-to-be).  After some calming down with the help of Leo the President came back out to the press room.  Before addressing the nation he pulled Charlie aside, told him what kind of gun had killed his mother (a police officer), and said the white house was working to get those banned.  Then he invited Charlie to join them.

Best moment in TV.  I might have teared up a little bit.

Corporate America: Fail

Tags

Consumer, Corporation

Dear Corporate America,

Why can’t I find any nice lined stationary on which I could write a thoughtful personal letter?  All I want to do is get something classy that will be perfect for a quality handwritten note.  Oh, but wait, Corporate America doesn’t value good old-fashioned hand written letters.  I went to Staples, Office Depot, Michaels (a crafts store), and Target, everywhere finding the same thing: stationary exists, but only the kind meant for your printer.  No lines, no classy hand-written letters.  This is stupid.  Guess it goes to show how much a culture can change, and be changed by, the goals of manufacture.  Time to look online I suppose, or maybe settle for something a little less than perfect.  We shall see; I wanted to have begun writing already.Sincerely,An Upset Consumer

P.S. I generally prefer to talk about how Corporate America is not the best…solution…for our societal organization.  However, if we are going to have Corporate America I at least want to be able to find some damn stationary.  Too bad Corporate America is a reflection of society as a whole…