Lost
I just lost my post about being lost.. How fitting.
I still find being back in Australia hard. We can be such an abstract society. Life is abstracted away. We live as consumers and workers. Too often value is defined in material terms.. Our riches are based on the exploitation of the poor. Too often it feels like we don’t have any choice. Our government gives tax cuts to the well of, instead of increasing services or providing tax relief. Who earns over $100,000 and still needs a handout from the government?
And why do people support these tax cuts. Probably because many believe one day they will be rich.
I don’t know how to live in Australia. I find it hard being back in a consumer society. I want to help people but I find it hard to ID the people who need it and how to help. It’s doubly hard because I am busy trying to finish my Uni course and working. I used to find both satisfying and meaningful. Now Uni largely feels hollow. I don’t know how much more it will teach me that I can use to help people. The focus is so heavily on the business and profit domain. Work is still OK but is taking up way to much time. Sometimes I wonder about the usefulness of what I do.
I’m feeling a bit better today. I keep finding I forget the key ingredient which is God. I am committed to having more regular quality quite times. Trying to listen to my God. I am committed to keeping myself informed about what is happening in the World.
Thanks to my fantastic friends. They prove to me there is a way to live in Australia with integrity, humility and love. My friends are one of God’s greatest gifts to me. Yet I am going to spend many years away from my oldest friends if plans come to fruition. Everything’s so temporary. Particularly if you are planning on leaving the country again in 9 months.
I find it quite hard putting energy in at places like uni because it doesn’t feel “useful”. But…I think it is useful being committed to such a thing and putting the work in, because I think getting the education is a really valuble thing in this world. It would be better if everyone who got the education used it for good, unfortunately not. But at least you can be one of those people who do! I think that if you were meant to be somewhere else right now, you’d be there, and even though its hard to be doing the ground work for what feels “useful” don’t doubt its use and value. I reckon its hard but, sticking it through uni I reckon will prove to be “useful”, not that I can talk Ms 6 years who’s only doing her 2nd. But I have to believe that, or else where would I be…working in an accounting firm. You’ll be great.
Way to go Jem. That’s so true. You have to remember, Dave, that waiting and preparing are not the same as doing nothing. We live in a society that says if you are waiting then you are wasting time but that’s not always true. There’s lessons to be learned in the waiting. Don’t wait till the waiting is over to learn the lessons.
Also, western culture isn’t bad. There’s bad parts to it as well as good. There are bad parts to Indian culture too. You’re just not used to seeing the bad in you’re home world.
“I can feel the good in you”
– Luke Skywalker