Skip to main content

I'm not good at this game

 If all aspects of one's life should be in harmony I should not be writing this. It doesn't go with the rest of my life, this existence model I've chosen. 

I read/heard half of a book about two teenagers who were violently and continuously bullied in school by their psychopathic classmates. They took the beating up and insults silently to a masochistic degree. 3 hours of listening to consistent pathetic silent self defining suffering. I returned the book to the library half way of course. I have no time or energy for stories about pathetic people who do nothing to break a vicious cycle, who take all the suffering and think it makes them special, it defines them. While the world around them moves on, people grow up, grow old, die, and no one learns a life lesson about not bullying the hell out of others. I have no energy, full stop. 

The difficulty is, we all think we are doing something to break the cycle. We want to believe we are not passive. I believe that endlessly whining about my job means I really want a change. I think talking to my manager about my long hours and the little help I'm getting means I've spoken up & done something to deserve an improvement, that thinking about migrating is a strong move in rejecting the cycle of abuse. But in reality, I'm just a coward who lives on micro-rebellion and self-victimization. Even this confession is a feel-good coverup. Oh, look! I am so aware of how pathetic I am. I am the wisest  of cowards. At least I'm not delusional. 

But I am. & what's worse? I'm a cheat. I can no longer tell what's a genuine feeling and what's my plot. I start a game, I make an attempt at learning the rules and play the game, like everyone else. Then halfway through, I realize I'm really shit at this, I'll never win. So I start kicking, throwing up my hands, calling it boring, abusive, a waste of my precious time, & deep down I know the whole time how I wish I was good at this game.

I'm standing outside myself now. I'm looking at myself. I'm thinking "Enough with this shit show. What are you really gonna do? What's your fucking game?"

I'm scared to find out.

I wish I could return this book.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Office Shorts #2

Incoming email: Hi A, Thanks for the responses. I’ve given the matter a bit of thought and can’t reach a definite conclusion based on the information. I think it’s worthwhile having a quick workshop to clarify a few questions I’ve added in red. Can you all please confirm your availability this afternoon at X:30.  X:30 pm (Joining the Teams meeting of 8): -Hello. X+1:15 pm (Unmuting, muting, unmuting): -No, that was on Level 10 but yes, fairly s... (interrupted by Bob from Christchurch) X+2:30 pm -Thanks everyone. Bye. (Sigh, removes headset like a torture device)

Hi in 2024

It’s been a while. Lately, I’ve been collecting all of my scattered notes from years. I find them on paper, in countless notebooks. l find them more recently in scattered word files on my work laptop. Bizarrely yet another evidence of the absence of boundary between private and corporate life. I came to take these notes and put them in the chronological order of my 67 page long Word file and delete the blog, then I realize I have 45 of these posts here. It suddenly felt unfair, like a crime against an entity with arms and legs. I think I’ll leave it here. It will be a bit of work transferring it to my file. I’ll give it a go. As for me in 2024, it’s more of the same in a new city, a bigger city in an apartment on the 16th floor overlooking the harbor. Other than that, it’s more of the same me maybe with less hair and a less fit body.

Office Shorts #1

I spent about a day creating this fabulous series of spreadsheets that talked to each other. I automated all the design so when Brian changed the input daily, my design & output would flow like a beautiful stream through the smooth paths meticulously engineered in Excel. Every one of the 4895 cells was revised, refined, tuned. I even got some help from some smart kid & automated it even more, so now 3 programs talked together flawlessly with one click. Hazza!  Brian went and renamed the main folder where one of my spreadsheets resides from Foundation to 9.0 Foundation. Fuck!