This post comes about because my friend’s funeral is going to be 32 days after she died. It is a 25 min slot in the local crematorium and there were only 2 spaces left on that day. Yes I know we’ve had covid – more the restrictions than the extra deaths. But surely having to wait over a month to bury someone is wrong. Someone I know said she was told that a month wait is normal. That’s not normal at all. What had gone wrong?
It led to me doing some more pondering about these strikes we’re having in the UK and what is going on there. As I mentioned in Strikes Take Planning a couple of weeks ago it is more than money. It is about conditions, about not feeling respected and more.
Then today I heard from two people who feel they are not valued where they are. One even gets paid a substantial amount of money but felt like no one really cares about people. Again that whole thing about respect.
I do understand that much has changed since covid and the UK has also had Brexit to deal with but I felt with both these things that there was more to it. Many people I know in both education and the health service say that the problems lie in the area of having to have outcomes and statistics, that is about profit and money. The management are looking at statistics, result charts, comparing with others, rather than caring for others.
My big bug bear always comes from schools because I suppose that is my thing. I work there. I went to one when I was a child, Actually to several. I chose to home school my children. What I see now is a lot of stress, a lot of not knowing what to do with some of these kids. School has lost its vision.
Schools were originally started when the Factories Acts said that children under a certain age could no longer work in factories, in mines, as chimney sweeps, etc, etc. This meant there were a lot of children on the streets with nothing to do. So they were corralled into schools. It was then realised that this was a good place to mold a workforce for the work place. So subjects were then added, made to fit the outcome of what was needed, and so forth. But now I think that vision has gone. Now it seems to be good grades, good behaviour, improving, but what is real need in the workforce now? I think it is more complicated that it was 150+ years ago because we no longer have the factories, the heavy industry, etc.
Where there is no vision, the people perish
proverbs 29:18 {a}
And I do think it is that lack of vision and the need for tangible outcomes, and making money, that have become the issues in too many places – whether education and health service or the company my friend was moaning about, or even the funeral service. People are no longer the centre. That is not to say that there are not loads of people out there who don’t care. These professions and work places are filled with people who care, but it is harder and harder to care if what you do does not make a profit for shareholders, show something good on the league tables, show some outcome.
And again I will say this leads to lack of respect for the majority of the workforce, but also because those in higher management are being pressurised by something/someone higher than them.
A thought to finish with – I came across a post on a friend’s Facebook page. I think it is true that said that so much of what we do is controlled by other people, by money and by our past. And we need to refind the vision as to the what and why of the country we are blessed to live in.
My opinions are mine and mine alone. They maybe right. They maybe wrong. But they are mine. But what surprised me in the last week is how people don’t seem to like it if my opinions differ from theirs. They seem to want me to change or something. Actually I’m not sure what they want because I cannot mind read and would not like to second guess others. One of the things that leads to stress, so the de-stress information says, is to try to second guess what others think.
to get that other side of my brain working, etc. I do understand that this was well meaning but what I was trying to say was that I was excited to find out something that I didn’t want to do. Goodness me there are enough things in the world to do and so I need to know what to use my time in doing. Also what “other side of my brain”? I must say I didn’t ask the question so cannot guess what was meant by it but my first instinct was to think they meant the creative side. And this is where for along time my dilemma came from as a writer. I did not think I was creative at all because I do find I get no joy from painting, pottery, and all those other forms of art. I love writing and I love cooking and I’m good at picking the colours to decorate a room with – though much prefer to then pay someone to do it for me! So because I couldn’t do the official art things I always thought I was not creative, that I had to get that creative side of my brain going. Not true. I am creative. With words I am very creative but I’m not keen on the painting/making stuff side of creativity 🙂
Palestine, that the British had a right to give the land to the Jews and when I voiced about the atrocities that were performed by the Jews on the Palestinians I was given short shrift. I tried to leave as quietly and politely as I could, voicing calmly why I was leaving as I went and got a real hard time from one of the course leaders and from a couple of the people present. Because I felt secure in my opinions, and not wanting to say theirs were wrong I was able to sleep well and calmly that night and have just been left, from both these times, wondering why people seem to not let others have their own opinion.
think differently to you and this is why” then maybe a dialogue could continue. Should I have stayed and not walked out of the course? I have pondered that. And actually at that moment in time walking out was the best thing as I was feeling upset by what was being said so wasn’t in a position to listen. I also knew, from the reaction I received to things I had said during the meeting and as I tried to leave, that I was not going to be able to openly discuss but would be told I was wrong.
would love others to feel the same way as I do but I have to learn that all I can do is show them my enthusiasm and then leave them to see what they think. I can tell them what I know but then respect how they react to it.
Aspirational Adventures 