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Wednesday, September 9. 2009
The Labor Begins!
Today life begins anew. For the past eight-plus months my life has been a routine primarily of recovery from one malady or another. Heart surgery and then pneumonia in particular. In that time I’ve had “battles” with the state of California over unemployment, then disability and then once again unemployment. In fact, the state and I are still locking horns over unemployment.Be-that-as-it-may, all of that should (let’s hope) become just a blurry memory because in a few hours I’ll start a new job. It isn’t an occupation of any great import, although all my friends have congratulated me for getting back to work. In this economy, with California unemployment running about 11% (and that’s just the people collecting benefits) any job looks good right now.
This job isn’t so bad, but it is definitely the lower rung of the employment ladder, an entry-level job that, at one time, was reserved for the young. Well, in this economy we can’t afford to make such distinctions.
Now, were I to put any stock in the numerology of it all, this job starts on September 9, 2009 — 09-09-09. There is, according to Chinese and Japanese legend (among others) some deep spiritual significance to the number nine. For the Chinese, it means this job, or maybe my employment overall, will be long lasting. For the Japanese, it’s the number of suffering and death. I’m predisposed to follow the Japanese thought on this, but I’m going out of character and embracing the Chinese philosophy!
09-09-09 can mean a lot of things, depending on whom you talk to. Arrogance and self-righteousness in one camp, or compassion, forgiveness and success in the other. I’d like to think I’m compassionate and forgiving already, so maybe success can’t be that far behind!
Eh, it’s just a date that will come around once every millennium so it will look cool to write for a day. Tomorrow, on September 10, the hoopla surrounding 09-09-09 will be forgotten as we settle in to the routines that comprise our lives.
In 50-plus years of living, it’s clear life is a routine, or a series of routines, interrupted now and then by a break from the prevailing order to be different. For a week, like going on a vacation, or for eight months when you are recovering from health issues. In the latter, that becomes a routine and the prospect of starting a new routine, a job, is a little scary. Will I get there on time the first day? Will I do the job well enough to continue being employed? What are the pitfalls of the place of employment, the stuff we don’t learn about in the job interviews?
Eventually, as all my jobs have proven over the years, this one will become a familiar routine, at once mundane and uninspiring, but also comfortable and predictable, an easy path that requires little thought and preparation — mundane and uninspiring.
The flipside to that coin is of course: in nine days I should have my first paycheck and it should look pretty nice! At least that’s the hope. Well, after the summer I’ve had financially, any paycheck will look good. So, I’ll put the trepidations aside and focus on September 18 — my first paycheck!
Now I’m smiling! Time to shit, shower and shave and get ready for work!
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