Life As Performance Art 174

Here, in the True North Bland and Boring we are in the early stages of a federal election campaign, and, as always, it is turning out to be annoying, ugly, negative and so full of shit that it's all beginning to resemble (and smell like) a dog park that hasn't been cleaned in months. I suppose I'm going to vote. I still don't know why I even bother, since the candidate I vote for (so far, always NDP), never gets elected and they are still considered too radical by the many conservative idiots that still make up this electorate. So much for politics. It is ugly, boring and every bit as necessary as taking a crap and properly wiping your butt after. In the meantime I am singing Should I Stay or Should I Go? about my least profitable worksite. I have been chronically underemployed there for the last eight years, and if I do leave, it will not financially hobble me between now and when my full retirement pension kicks in in just over a year. I would be using up only one third or so of the extra savings I have built up over this past year, which is actually nothing to sneeze at. In other words, I can afford to walk if that becomes my only option. I am meeting with my supervisor next week and we'll see how it goes. It's basically all about me having been recently character assassinated by several new, and very conservative, peer support workers, with her alleged or passive consent, and of course I no longer feel safe there. The supervisor, herself, is relatively new, having been there for just over two years or so. She has recently hired all those new people and appears to be stacking the place with new recruits that reflect her point of view. If she continues to be hardline with me, I'm walking. I and one other peer support worker, alone, are left from the previous administration. Others have left by attrition. One, just two months ago, our longest peer support worker who predates even me, for reasons undisclosed, was fired two months ago. (the euphemism de jour is, they would not renew her contract this time). I find myself wondering if I will be next. But it is like that in the workplace, as in politics and also in churches. When a new priest, or new prime minister, or new boss or supervisor appears, they will often want to change everything to reflect their own particular perspective and interpretation, and (dare I say!) bias and prejudice. This can often mean somehow getting rid of inconvenient incumbents and replacing us with new and loyal folk who will channel their every wish and desire and will basically dance to their tune and defend their new bosses' honour to the death, if they have to. But I have also decided to stop worrying about it, even if the stress has deprived me of an hour and a half of needed sleep, but I am taking a nap after breakfast and I have also been excused from the meeting this morning at the eponymous worksite, since the supervisor wants to talk with me about the incident before I attend another meeting, since it could be otherwise very uncomfortable for everyone, especially given that these new hires appear so quick to take offence at me. So I can rest this morning and just meet with my supervisor at a different worksite where things usually tend to go rather well. I have decided to minimize the drama, since that just ratchets up the stress. I would rather pretend that this is a B movie drama that I happen to be a bit-player in, for which reason this is just not worth taking too seriously. I am reminded of a conversation I had yesterday with some of the staff at a café I enjoy visiting. I mentioned that one of the reasons I seem to prefer drawing and painting beautiful aesthetic subjects is actually rather simple and profound. Creating beauty helps inoculate me against becoming cynical, bitter and angry as I age. I'm not always convinced that it's working, but let's just pretend that it is working, for now, anyway, Gentle Reader!