A friend and I were talking one evening about jobs. We are the same age and graduated from high school the same year, 1974. You can do the math on that to determine our ages....still 50 something.
My friend has worked at three different places. I, on the other hand, have had over 17 different jobs in the last 40 years.
When I was in high school, I absolutely adored my English teacher. She was fresh out of college when I was a freshman and the entire class nearly drove her crazy. We would do things like waiting until she had her back turned to us, then we would all simultaneously push our books off our desks, scaring the you-know-what out of her. Her classroom was located directly across from the school office at the time and that first year she nearly wore a path in the floor stomping across the hall. She survived and I developed a deep respect for her. When I was a junior, I told her I wanted to be an English teacher, like her. She looked me straight in the eye and said, "Ruthie, YOU are NOT English teacher material." Yes indeed, she was a wise woman.
I've been employed as a waitress, cashier, bookkeeper, cook, writer, maid service, secretary, bus driver, babysitter, hairdresser and factory worker. I've been self employed five times and am now.
So, what does that say about us? My friend is stable and I'm a raving lunatic? Hmmm......maybe. Perhaps it falls under the heading of contentment. Maybe my friend was content in the job he had, until something better came along. Was I discontent, easily bored? My friend never liked making ripples, where I was the one jumping up and down in the puddle until all the water was gone, then off to find a new adventure.
We have both seen feast and famine, so the occupations we chose didn't really make a difference in the final outcome. But we both had the right to choose what we wanted, or did not want to do.
Not everyone can be a rocket scientist or a doctor. When my husband had his fingers smashed under a load of plywood and they looked like squished grapes, I told him I didn't think he wanted me to fix them. Off to the E.R. we went and I really wanted to help the doctor stitch them back together. The doc didn't think that was a good idea, but he let me get right in there and watch. I think I could have done it, but my point is you don't want me performing brain surgery. I'm not qualified for that, I was too busy coloring outside of the lines.
That being said brings me to the topic of spreading the wealth. You can take all the money in the country and divide it equally among all the people. In about six months to a year, under a free society, the people who had more money to start with will have it back and the ones who didn't have any, will have probably spent it all. That is just the way it is. We are all different from each other but if we want more, we have the right to pursue it. If we don't learn to take care of "it", that's no one's fault but our own.
If you believe that all people should have everything the same and no one has to learn or earn anything, then you are dumbing down the people. If the creative spirit is taken from the people that is a sure fire way to lead them down the path of dependency and then the pursuit of happiness will be a thing of the past.
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