Is what?

Myth called me yesterday to inquire about my health and/or state of mind. Was I too disgusted to write, too busy, or just plain ill. Well none and all of the above but writing about negative stuff really breeds negative feelings, a lot. Sometimes you have to step back, write chocolate chip recipes and play feel good music at full volume.

Okay, so it isn't really working. Still having some of those philosophical difficulties but you know, maybe if I close my eyes it will go away. Staring at the ceiling at 3:00 am proves that doesn't work. You know I'm not really angry, more like resigned, but as Slacker reminded me, if people like me do and say nothing, or ignore the reality of our lives by living in la-la land, then we only have ourselves to blame for our condition.

In the last two weeks I noticed something that was so absolutely, beyond words, mind-blowing that I've been treating with it as a hallucination but, really can no longer pretend. I live near a Catholic Church, a large, "society" church where the faithful all drive very expensive cars and don't generally speak to the people who live in the immediate surround. Every blamed morning, church bells at quarter to six, the bells are electronic by the way, programmed to go, fun when you've had only a couple hours sleep but that's okay. We're all neighbours, we all respect each other right. It's even more fun when the faithful park, blocking our access to the front gates, creating one lane of traffic down our street which just happens to be a main artery. But who's complaining, grin and bear it, we're all neighbours. And then we all shook our heads and shrugged when they proceeded to build a large building in what used to be the car park fo the Church. It took about a year, hmm, more displaced parking but, we're all tolerant. Never mind the run off every time it rained was causing the road to flood a little more often, but it's the CHURCH, come on.

So the building is finally complete. It is ginormous. There's also a spiffy new fence complete with wrought iron crosses and other decorative work. Okay. BUT, what I cannot fathom, why in God's name is there an electrified fence on top of the wrought iron bit? You heard me right. They have a very forbidding looking electric fence on top of their spiffy bits. Clearly Christian charity is alive and well, clearly we do not trust in God to protect the premises, we must resort to barbaric methods as well. Well, you know God does help those who help themselves but I really wonder about this. Who are they trying to keep out? There's a guard at the gate, twenty four seven. This is a residential neighbourhood, not exactly a war zone. Sure we have not so nice things happen from time to time, but an electric fence? This is a whole new level of, well, I don't even know what. Wow. Is this what we've come to?

But then, why am I surprised. This morning on the radio news; yes, I know, give up listening to the news it will only be bad, there was a story about Prison Officers working the night shift at the Royal Gaol. They're threatening to withdraw their services or work to rule unless they received protection going to and from their cars after work. What? The car park is a stone's throw from the jail, it seems that these Prison Officers have been receiving threats against their persons from family members of incarcerated felons. The Officers claim that they and their families are under threat and they have no means of protecting themselves since they must relinquish their firearms when leaving the jail. They too are afraid. Soon we're going to have to lock everyone up at this rate.

And you wonder why I seem so cynical and jaded. Heck, I'm surprised that many of us get up in the morning, get dressed and come to work. But we do, so we must do, so we must ALL do. Sorry Myth, I tried but the glass just is right now.