Gone Fishing For A New Job

I'll be out of a job come the end of this month. So, I've decided to stop blogging until I find a new one. Not only will this motivate me to find a new job sooner, but it will also clear away at least one major distraction to my doing everything necessary to succeed.

I've heard that if one wants to get really good at something, he needs to do it virtually every day. That may be true, and I would like to get better at writing and blogging. But I need to earn the money to pay my bills first. I may never be able to do this by writing or blogging, so I need to focus all of my resources right now on finding a decent job.

I look forward to my next post, because it will mean that I've found one and that I'm again able to do what I love doing most.

Being Like Jeff

I long to speak and write the way Jeff Beck plays guitar. At his best, his whole being is in every note. At my best, my whole being is in every word.

Inside each of us, there is ugliness as well as beauty. Yet, when we mindfully and continuously bring what is inside out into the light of awareness, are we not transformed and transforming? Do we not shine with the radiant beauty of Jeff Beck playing Somewhere Over The Rainbow?

I'm Being Laid Off

I wrote recently that I expected to be laid off from my job at the end of this month. I found out yesterday that I was right. February 27 will be my last day. I'm already preparing and looking for another job. When I find one, I hope it's better than the one I'm losing, even in today's economy.

My boss told me of a job that might open soon in another unit within the department and that he would give me his highest recommendation if I want to apply for it. I've heard bad things about that job, and I have misgivings about whether I'm up to it. But we'll see. I'm not desperate, but I am looking to rise above my doubts and to "feel the fear and do it anyway."

This may be a good time for it.

Musical Trio of Doom

Two of these genius musicians, Jaco Pastorius and Tony Williams, are no longer with us. But their music lives on. And John McLaughlin still lives to make more brilliant music.

Cash or Credit?

Here is an imaginary transcript of the discussion Nadya Suleman had with doctors at the fertility clinic responsible for her recently giving birth to octuplets.

"So, Miss Suleman, you're 32, divorced, unemployed, attending college, living with your bankrupt parents in a three-bedroom home, you have six children between the ages of 1 and 6, your 2-year-old is autistic, and you want to have more children?"

"I sure do, Doctor!"

"No problem. We'll just implant eight embryos in your uterus and see what happens. Will that be cash or credit?"

And Eight Make Fourteen

You've probably heard about the Southern California divorcee with six kids who recently gave birth to eight more. The first media stories about it were abuzz with excitement, but now they've become more restrained as people begin to ponder the implications of this event.

There are reports that the grandmother is so exasperated with her daughter's obsession with having children that she's threatened to leave her to her own devices. If she thinks it's bad now, just wait till the babies come home! The mother of the octuplets, Nadya Suleman, lives with her parents in a modest three bedroom house and apparently is unemployed with no source of income, and her parents themselves purportedly declared bankruptcy recently.

I feel upset about this story. Not so much about the mother herself, because I think she was almost certainly emotionally disturbed to be in her situation and still seek fertility treatment. What I find most upsetting is the doctor who agreed to help her have more children.

I don't know precisely what kind of treatment this doctor rendered, but it seems likely that it was a kind known to carry a significant risk of multiple births. I think this doctor's license to practice medicine should be revoked, or, if that's impossible under the existing laws and regulations, I think he or she should be hounded out of practice. Right now that's not possible since we don't even know who this miserable excuse for a doctor is. But if I knew who it was and I lived in Southern California, I'd want to be out picketing this doctor's clinic.

But leaving my anger and disgust aside, I worry about the children. Not only about the octuplets, but also about the other six young children, at least one of whom is reported to be autistic. How well can a single nutcase mom and her parents take care of all of them? No doubt they'll have help, monetarily and in other ways. I expect a book deal and a new cable channel series about them to compete with Jon and Kate Plus Eight. Perhaps it will be titled And Eight Make Fourteen.

But Kate has Jon to help her raise their set of twins and set of sextuplets, and even then it's a full time job for both of them, requring logistical planning and coordination that would impress the hell out of General Petraeus. How well is Nadya Suleman going to fare with fourteen kids and no Jon to help out?

And what can we as a society do to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again?