Autobiography
Food, Clothing & Shelter
I have them all and I still can’t get to Maslow’s self actualization realm
The daily indignities of ‘catching up’ with bills, and failing technology and all the things you have to do to keep your home and car and life functional are more and more time consuming. Is it just me? No, I know it isn’t just me. Talk with anyone. Trash is falling on our heads, it seems like, constantly. As soon as I have arranged for a cleaning person to save me from washing my kitchen floor, I have ants in my kitchen. As soon as I have fixed the ‘water in my basement’ problem, my phone carrier stops delivering my voicemails. As soon as I have returned all the overdue books to the library my internet service starts de-prioritizing my internet access. I’m paying for fast, I’m getting slow. Roll your eyes now if you have tried to solve a problem with an internet or cell phone carrier. We would laugh if it wasn’t life and death which it could be.
One reason for this is the creeping collapse of so many of our daily institutions.
How long does it take to get your Rx medications now that we can do it all on our phones and ipads. Yes, they will mail it to you. Yes, and how many passwords and codes and verifications do we have to oblige each connection with now that security has been terrorized by hacking.
These are crazy making problems. Can we live any longer without cell phones or internet? Without our phone constantly charged and in your pocket. Without being able to use a laptop? No. We can’t. Let’s please dispense with all the ‘1st world problem chatter’. Of course I can put all this in perspective, but my life is in this here and now — in the the US, in a midwest city where I have to maintain my food, clothing and shelter; maintain my community circle connections and keep connected to all my healthcare providers.
In these times it takes longer to manage all of this notwithstanding all our vaunted labor saving devices. No I can’t live without my cell phone or my laptop … not possible. But the labor cost in maintaining them in working order is high. And btw — have you noticed that when clothing items used to last a decade without degrading, now the same manufacturer and price lasts … a fraction of the time. Replacement time? No that item is of course no longer available. Am I sounding like a geezer crank? You tell me — what generation is not experiencing these time consuming overheads?
