The Walking Dead 5

Being wage slaves is part of the problem. Having to work full time, often in thankless occupations can really maim and destroy the soul, and often does. This isn't to say that things aren't better than they once were, say, during the nineteenth century when the twelve to sixteen hour workday with no days off was de rigueur for most people. Has anyone ever seen the bumper sticker: "The Labour movement: the folks who brought you the weekend?" And not only the weekend, but the eight hour workday, and benefits and rights and collective bargaining. Well, it is getting worse again, with the dismantling of unions and the gutting of collective bargain rights thanks to the so-called reforms of neoliberalism during the eighties and nineties. now we have contract flipping that has resulted in lower, usually less than living, wages, no benefits and zero job security. Work that was once secure and long-term is now contracted out and under the ruse of independence and freedom we have a growing number of unprotected contract workers in precarious employment, often not sure if they can make ends meet. Those are the ones most likely to wind up at the food bank before the next payday. They often have to sacrifice days off in order to keep body and soul together, because in a market economy, nothing is secure. And more often than not, those are not even enjoyable jobs, and to make things worse, they usually do not have time to connect and bond with coworkers onsite, making for a lonely and socially-isolated work life. If I didn't have the good fortune of living in government-subsidized housing, especially in Vancouver where housing costs can easily eat up sixty percent or more of your paycheque, I would surely perish, my options being to live either on the sidewalk or in a low barrier shelter, or to have to move entirely out of the lower mainland and maybe even to another province. Even in a more emotionally rewarding, if challenging career such as what I do in mental health peer support, the temptation can be to get so focussed on the details of the day job as to forget the larger picture of my part in the universe, and my role in the human family. This is why I have always felt ambivalent about work, as we know it. This has nothing to do with being lazy, by the way, and I certainly am not lazy. But neither have I ever felt in any great hurry to barter my soul to the lowest (or highest) bidder. Our current work model is unhealthy and I think, in terms of human health, unsustainable. This is especially so when you think of how little time we really have to ourselves and our loved ones and to focus on our personal wellness, once we have finished our work day. Most people are actually on the job or the work site for around nine or ten hours a day. Factor in with that a commute of at least an hour each way to work, often longer, and we can say, that's twelve hours of your day shot, and if you are not even earning a living wage, then that just adds further insult. If you have kids, then you of course have to pick them up from school or day care, and if you have grocery shopping to take care of and meals to prepare...Is it any wonder why an eight hour sleep is considered by many to be an unattainable luxury, or, if you will pardon the pun, Gentle Reader, a pipe dream? Add to this the pressure of rent and mortgage payments and family and social commitments and it is no marvel that most of us have to carefully schedule our lives down to ever last detail, including when, or if we take a shit! This is why I tend to snicker satirically about mindfulness and forest bathing. Not because there is no value in such activities, of course there is! But rather of how badly we have contracted and parcelled off our lives here in Zombie Nation, we actually have to relearn such skills as have always been essential to our human and psychological and spiritual health. I have never had to learn or practice mindfulness or whatever Buddha babble you want to call it, because I have never lost that capacity of being still, centred and aware. Likewise with forest bathing. A lovely concept but this is something I have done since I was a child, only there was no name for it and I still don`t need a name for it. I have fortunately never lost those skills, that proclivity for stillness and contemplative bliss, and I would say that my experience of prayer as a Christian has done much to develop and transfigure these experiences into a daily reality. This has been for me part of the trade off for not selling my soul for professional and fiscal security and gain. I might be materially poorer than most Canadians, but the wealth that I have accrued through my enjoyment of nature and life, despite my poverty, goes undiminished, and so is the light that fills me and goes before me, lighting my way through this cracked and broken pavement on the high street of Zombie Nation.