Let it go
Mostly I have been posting pictures and talking about scenic beauty. This post falls into the category of "other topics" and there are no pictures. So you can skip over this one if you just want to see the scenery.
It took me a while to get to the point where I could write this post because at first I didn't quite understand my own reactions. With time, I think I understand, and perhaps some person who reads this might be helped.
Between the demands of the UAW and programs to guarantee financial security for the top management of my former company, a bankruptcy is ongoing. Quite frankly, I was and am still alarmed by the long term prospects for the company. Acting on my (still rational) fears, I elected to take a lump sum, which marks down my pension and my post retirement health care to about 50% of its promised value. I took a lump sum because the last step in bankruptcy is liquidation, which would take everyone's pension to a level that "is about enough to feed my cat" in my wife's terms.
I suppose I could be angry, and people have encouraged me to write to express my pain. But I'm not angry. And this is the part I didn't understand. I didn't understand it until I took a long drive to a church hike with a divorcee, where she expressed her continuing anger, bitterness, and resentment about the events surrounding and after her divorce. She is one unhappy person, who feels pain every waking moment of every day.
But she has a choice. Yes, she got shafted by her divorce. But that event is in the past and cannot be undone. But her continuing anger and pain makes it impossible for her to enjoy the good things around her. She is getting shafted AGAIN, and this time by her own hand. With this 2nd shaft job, she has a choice. She can LET IT GO, and get on with her life. Or she can continue to be the queen of pain.
The things that the UAW and top management did at my former company, were things that I couldn't influence. They will dance away with their bucks, and the salaried folk will be left holding whatever bag remains. I can hang on to my anger about what happened, and let it destroy any possibility of appreciating the good things around me, or I can let it go. I choose to let it go.
I will view with concern the downward spiral of events at my former company, only because I still have friends there. I might even join a class action suit, but I won't become emotionally invested in it. No, I won't be the guy in the bar who rails on and on about how he got screwed. I'm too busy hiking and skiing and working and making new friends.
Post script
If you still think that hanging on to anger is simple justice, isn't that what the Shias and Sunnis and Israelis and Palestinians are doing? You killed my friend, so I will kill your friend. And the cycle of killing and retribution will never end until there are no survivors. How just is that?
It took me a while to get to the point where I could write this post because at first I didn't quite understand my own reactions. With time, I think I understand, and perhaps some person who reads this might be helped.
Between the demands of the UAW and programs to guarantee financial security for the top management of my former company, a bankruptcy is ongoing. Quite frankly, I was and am still alarmed by the long term prospects for the company. Acting on my (still rational) fears, I elected to take a lump sum, which marks down my pension and my post retirement health care to about 50% of its promised value. I took a lump sum because the last step in bankruptcy is liquidation, which would take everyone's pension to a level that "is about enough to feed my cat" in my wife's terms.
I suppose I could be angry, and people have encouraged me to write to express my pain. But I'm not angry. And this is the part I didn't understand. I didn't understand it until I took a long drive to a church hike with a divorcee, where she expressed her continuing anger, bitterness, and resentment about the events surrounding and after her divorce. She is one unhappy person, who feels pain every waking moment of every day.
But she has a choice. Yes, she got shafted by her divorce. But that event is in the past and cannot be undone. But her continuing anger and pain makes it impossible for her to enjoy the good things around her. She is getting shafted AGAIN, and this time by her own hand. With this 2nd shaft job, she has a choice. She can LET IT GO, and get on with her life. Or she can continue to be the queen of pain.
The things that the UAW and top management did at my former company, were things that I couldn't influence. They will dance away with their bucks, and the salaried folk will be left holding whatever bag remains. I can hang on to my anger about what happened, and let it destroy any possibility of appreciating the good things around me, or I can let it go. I choose to let it go.
I will view with concern the downward spiral of events at my former company, only because I still have friends there. I might even join a class action suit, but I won't become emotionally invested in it. No, I won't be the guy in the bar who rails on and on about how he got screwed. I'm too busy hiking and skiing and working and making new friends.
Post script
If you still think that hanging on to anger is simple justice, isn't that what the Shias and Sunnis and Israelis and Palestinians are doing? You killed my friend, so I will kill your friend. And the cycle of killing and retribution will never end until there are no survivors. How just is that?
posted by jobchange @ 9:14 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home