Only A Guy Sucking Off The Teat Of Mother Church Would Say This
That losing your job is good for you. From the Times of London, from a story by Ruth Gledhill, about the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres:
"Sometimes, people seem to be relieved to get off the treadmill and to be given an opportunity to reconsider what they really want out of life. One of the great implications of this turbulence for us is to re-boot our sense of what a truly flourishing human life consists of. The 'CrackBerry' culture is dangerously addictive and switching off from it is notoriously difficult," he said....At least one church in the City has had a poor take-up for its redundancy counselling sessions, however. An evangelical church has had almost no attendees at its lunchtime workshops on the recession. A lay member at the church speculated that this was because redundancy carries a stigma, and that in any case those who had been sacked were back at home with their wives and families in the stockbroker belt.
Or maybe because it's not helpful to be around asshats who think like this guy, while living as close as one possibly can to the way they did when Mummy and Daddy were supporting them.
Would you rather he said "you are all so fucked."? This is an economic cycle, a really bad one, but losing your job isn't the end of the world. I lost my job with an engineering firm in the early 1990's downturn, and I was devastated. I had a new family, I had never been out of work since the day I turned 16, and it was scary. But my wife and I started a new business, and after a year or so it began to flourish. Three years later we were making 5 times what I made when I got laid off.
Today I am marketing myself again. My wife just began a gift basket business. It's an overall positive, even though for the first time in 15 years I worry about money.
I like what the commenter on the TimesOnline said- "why are we so fixated on the static?" That's my thought of the day.
Eric at February 14, 2009 9:54 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/02/14/only_a_guy_suck.html#comment-1626733">comment from EricI'm actually just thinking of how I can manage vis a vis so many newspapers going out of business. It doesn't pay to whine about it (I do do a little of that). Yesterday, I started thinking about doing seminars to help people figure out how to approach love, dating, sex, relationships, and to tell them the truth (debunk myths) about the opposite sex. My book will, I hope, do well, and I'll write more, but I love writing my column and want to continue. So, I'm figuring out ways to do that. I'm also going to open up an Amy's Mall page here, with my book and other recommendations, because I get a six percent kickback from any book anybody buys through one of my links, and other stuff they buy at Amazon, too. And I'm going to have Blogads after Pajamas ends its blogvertising in April. Pro-active, anti-whining. The idea is to be pro-active enough that you don't even have time to whine.
Anybody with advice on how to go about setting up my program (small, at first), please comment here. I'm thinking of renting a classroom somewhere for the first one and making it small -- 30 people or so -- and charging less. The info presented will be very professionally done -- with visuals and a syllabus and planned/written as if I'm writing a book or doing a one-woman show. I'll take questions, too.
Amy Alkon
at February 14, 2009 10:19 AM
Good luck on all that! Sorry to hear about your economic worries. If it helps, I don't know a single person who isn't worried right now. We are in a period of great change.
My biggest worry right now is America is so emotionally drained (not sure if weak is the right word) that if we do have a 9/11 type attack, it could push us into a full blown depression. Then I think of England circa 1939, and they survived a real military threat and achieved their finest hour.
With all your connections, and your unique personality, I have zero doubt you will do well in the future...
PS- There will always be an England!
Eric at February 14, 2009 11:51 AM
Rough week here, too. Knew it was coming, not bitter, much to be grateful for.
> America is so emotionally drained
> (not sure if weak is the
> right word)
Yes. Just consider all the negative topics that have filled the air for the last ten years. War, global warmening, Bush Derangement, Rove Rove Rove etc. All this bummer talked has allowed perhaps the greatest act of fiscal malfeasance in human history.
And this from the most productive, best-looking national culture on the planet! Eric, few children in human history have had lives as promising, or as already enriching, as your son.
The screeching became so loud that people lost perspective. '800 billion? Whatever, man...'
Crid [cridcridatgmail] at February 14, 2009 1:48 PM
Sorry to hear that Crid. Best of luck on your next endeavor.
Eric at February 14, 2009 3:34 PM
Aw Jesus Shit, I did NOT mean to whine, Eric. (I just want to be part of the club here, guys!) I've had a lot of great years recently... As you were saying earlier, this whole "concern about income" thing is like a pang from an old football injury that you thought had gone away. It's nothing to be bitter about!
MUCH to be grateful for here at Casa del Cridmo, much....
Crid [cridcridatgmail] at February 14, 2009 5:47 PM
Amy's Mall sounds like a good idea. Can we get advicegoddess.com t-shirts? The relationship seminar sounds like something I saw on CSI:Miami once...
One way to turn lemons into lemonade might be to get some of this stimulus money by turning your school talks into one of those nonprofit organizations that has highly paid executives.
For that matter, teens would benefit from relationship advice too. I recently read a marriage book and said "Wow, I wish I would have known this stuff when I was single."
Pseudonym at February 14, 2009 6:43 PM
Ok, I'll admit that I did some whining about it when things got worse than I could have imagined, but it was only a little. But on the financial front it turned out great.
Turned out that all the nice things I did for the people around me came back to me. I needed help and folks crawled out of the woodwork to provide it. Got us through until I came back to MI. That could have sucked worse, but I managed to get a job that utilizes some of my best qualities, including being an asshole - without taking much of my time. I'm going to school and, with the help of performance enhancing drugs (Ritalin) I am managing quite fabulously. At this rate, I'll have my bachelor of psych in less than three years, with a secondary in English/communications. Add a couple more for my masters and I can work my way through my Phd (which if all goes as planned, will be at Stanford, wherein an addiction researcher really wants me to work for her).
Things are still tough on several fronts, but we are learning to manage.
I will definitely think on the advice about setting up your program Amy. I have a couple of ideas forming in my head, but I'm painfully focused on my addiction paper.
It may sound cheesy, but have you considered dating sites, as a possible outlet for your column? Not sure it's worth it, but it never hurts to ask.
And I will remember to enter Amazon from here in the future. I am buying a lot of fucking books through them these days - including most of my textbooks for school.
DuWayne at February 16, 2009 6:30 AM
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