Besides the Crash

"Beligerently anti-intellectual" is how I've heard the folks of Coos Bay described. And, well, to a large extent, I'd have to say that is true.

But like in Portland, Shusli and I have found like minded folks here in this little podunk town.

However, when issues come home to roost, folks start wondering, folks start thinking, folks start talking.

Working as a nursing assistant, I have taken up my minimal smoking habit a notch, which still isn't bad. I smoke non-chemicalized tobacco blended by a blender at Rich's smoke shop in PDX. It is called girls blend and is cut for cigarettes and has a hint of vanilla. Unlike your grocery store cigarettes, it doesn't have a hundred chemicals in it (some illegal). The best conversations happen out back in that little covered area where all the smokers (residents, visitors, and employees alike), hang out, smoke a cigarette, and BS about our little world and beyond.

NEVER amongst the "beligerently anti-intellectual" types, have I heard conversations going beyond the latest TV show, what their significant others are doing, cars, etc. But since I've started working at this care center, the most interesting conversations (at least at this place) happen where the smokers hang out. Even folks whom you'd swear wouldn't know the world beyond their favorite TV show are talking about the price of gas, oil, the stock market crash, the banking and mortgage crisis, the bullshit of war, etc. You still hear about their favorite TV shows, etc., but more than that, you hear about these other issues. Now, these issues are effecting their lives directly and ordinary folks know that a possible disaster is happening and they want to know why or have a good reality based idea as to why the current gas hike is happening; why the current rate of local businesses are collapsing, why food prices are rising, etc. Your everyday Joe, the "belligerently anti-intellectual type," is actually talking about global issues because the global issues have come home to roost.

WORK

My job is the oddest I've had. It is the hardest working job I've ever had. It is the best and the worst job I have ever had, and that to me is fascinating and troubling at the same time.

I have never felt such intimate contact with the folks that I am helping. I get to see their smiles, become a part of their lives, and I think of the line from Saul Williams poem, "Talk to Strangers," " ...Jesus had a wife, and she was his messiah like that stranger may be yours, who holds a subtle knife that carves through worlds like magic doors..." Most of these folks are magic to me. But the work is hard, often a pain in the ass, emotionally and physically draining.

I have had a DEEP respect for the work that Shusli has done and does do as a nurse. I have had a good idea what folks like her do and how it takes a very special person to do that type of work. In just becoming involved in health care myself, that respect has reached a rather massive depth and richness. This work is hard and difficult and more often than not, unrewarding, and Shusli has been involved in it for years. Those involved in health care often wind up sacrificing their health for others. That is not good. Health care is a job you'll both Love and Hate, but more than likely you hate it for the most part. Health care professionals are unsung heroes. These folks should have a high standing in today's society. The only health care professionals that do are doctors, and doctors are often heartless assholes. It's the hands on folks that really deserve great praise.