Why Bank Holidays Suck

Well they're great if you don't work in the service industry of course, who doesn't love a three day weekend?

So after a glorious six hour shift in the coffee shop my patience for the service industry has lessened greatly. I know I have about four months left in the coffee shop before I start my teacher training but today really got under my skin.

I know children are not the tidiest of eaters, especially if they are under ten. However, if I had ever made that much mess my mother would not have been a happy woman. I doubt I would have been allowed out shopping with her again for a while truth be told. What makes matters worse their parents didn't even make any attempt to clean up their mess, let alone apologise.

This is a very short & vacuous entry but I wanted to vent. Gr... Muffin crumbs.

The Lion shall eat straw like the Ox

Ok, so I am an angry pseudo-hippy (I say pseudo because I love owning stuff). It is sadly a label I embrace and more often than not play up to. I work for a VERY green company (and my stupid coffee shop job), I am a recycling Nazi, I am liberal to the point of apathy, I am a vegetarian and I have been known to wear tie-dye. So I feel it is time for me to add my opinions on the matter to the million other voices out there.

I'm not going to lie I often think if we could all live with the animals without eating them life would be alot simpler.  However, deep down I know this is fundamentally wrong from an evolutionary standpoint. Humans are supposed to eat meat, we evolved to eat meat. Our appendix is useless and will explode given half a chance. So in living in this idyllic world we would be denying our true nature - that is to hunt and to kill. I think the whole process of eating meat has been greatly sanitised.  Its chopped, gutted, skinned and shrink wrapped. Admittedly it is damn convinient but I think it devalues the animal and meat as a whole has become such a commodity its almost meaningless.

My example to underpin the point is as follows. My friend saw some livestock being transported. They were all cramped into the lorry and looking out at the passing cars. He promptly exclaimed to his mother that the whole thing was so upsetting he was to become vegetarian upon returning home.  His mother made some placatory noises and they drove home. Upon arriving home he takes a snack from the fridge. Sausages. Now my friend in question is not an idiot, he knows full well where meat comes from. Yet the whole meat industry, to my mind, breeds this sort of non-thinking. I'm not berating my friend or condemning his actions - fundamentally its his choice. It just made me sigh.

Anyway, back to my idyllic scenario with people frolicking with cows.  Might I direct your attention to Isaiah 11, also known as the Peaceable Kingdom.  Its understood as a passage dealing with the end times, the coming of the Messiah will turn the world on its head where the carnivores and herbivores live in harmony and poisonous snakes won't harm children.  After doing some environmental ethics/green theology modules I am quite fond of the idea of a primordial vegetarianism and in the end times we will return to this blissful state.

So, understanding The Fall as an actual event where sin/evil enter the world.  Taking sin/evil to be interpreted as suffering and for the longest time was understood only as human suffering.  However as time went on it grew ever more apparent to understand the suffering of the whole of Creation (proper noun here to denote importance).  Folk cleverer than I came up with the idea of a primordial vegetarianism to be part of our pre-Fall state. In this state Creation was vegetarian - that is to understand it in the loosest sense that no flesh was consumed based on the Genesis account (1:30).
 
Now I KNOW humans along with a plethora of creatures have evolved to eat and hunt lesser creatures. I am in no way a Darwin denier nor a Biblial literalist. I know from an evolutionary standpoint I am an anomaly being a vegetarian, yet I cannot reconcile my love of the flesh (I used to be a hideous carnivore in my youth) with thought of such beautiful creatures being destroyed for my benefit. It would also be horrific to deny predators the thrill of the chase and taste of meat in pursuit of a worldwide vegetarianism. Millions of years of evolution has honed these animals into such effective hunters and made them beautiful with it.

I think Heaven (if a place should exist) is a peaceful place. Like the pre-Fall state where prey animals live in harmony, free from the fear of flitting shadows whereas predators can experience the thrill of the chase for eternity without ever hurting their fellow creatures.  Their prey would be spectres of what exists on Earth devoid of feeling or sentience. All animals (humans included) can be true to their nature and not to the detriment of any other creature.

This is a very brief summary of the whole topic. It would take more than a blog post to do this subject any justice.  But I felt the compulsion to get it off my chest.

So my fellow green theology loving, tie-dye wearing vegetarians the Eschaton will usher in a new era of guilt free food and peaceful living, without any part of Creation denying their true selves.

Catharsis

I've got nothin to say to you, sight of your face, it fucks me off too
Don´t care nothin bout the things that you do but - Youre still here.

Never listened to things that you say, don't wanna go to work every day
all I wanna do is keep out of your way but - Youre still here.

And as we sit in the silence of our room, one of us might speak out.
Sometimes soon but I hope. Because - I like it that way.

We dont speak, cos our body is dead. We're even sleeping in different beds
I dont remember anything you ever said - But I need you here.

(Sometimes the words of angry Geordies soothes the soul & puts things in perspective).

Been a while...

No internet and no inspiration makes for no blog posts.

Well a week in Wales and some work experience will certainly provide me with something to rant about. Not to mention some new tidbits for Confessions.

Watch this space :)

Mental Masturbation

I think upping the creativity levels of my daily life will make me happier. Lord only knows my coffee job isn't stimulating and I'm feeling the pressure a little bit in my other job. I love it there most of the time, but the pressure to increase our sales it a little much.

So, I'm thinking about starting a second blog for my roleplay characters. Very nerdy I know but I think it will be fun.

(Also, the word mendicant turns me on slightly).

Infinity.

According to Einstein only two things are infinite; the universe and human stupidity (apparently he wasn't sure about the former). However, despite the man's unparalleled genius he clearly never worked in retail as he would have added human ignorance to their infinite stupidity.

So, I have two jobs. One I LOVE and one I tolerate as it gives me free coffee and supplements my income. Of course no job (no matter how much you love it) is without its idiots or people who just seem to ruin your good mood. Today it seemed was full of the latter variety of stupid. Ok, its a Sunday after Christmas so it was naturally fairly quiet BUT that is no excuse for rude people. They are the type of people who reply to your friendly greeting of "good morning" by putting their hand up and snap "I'm JUST looking." Evidentally they don't know anything of etiquette.

Perhaps they were having a bad day but to my knowledge "good morning" or "hello" have no hidden agendas. Cynically speaking I am paid to be nice, as is every monkey who works in the service industry, but the nature of this job makes me happy. I am surrounded by wonderful people and beautiful products in a plesant working environment, so why wouldn't I be happy? Plus I would like to think the majority of the time I am fairly polite and respond in kind to someone even if my day was rubbish.

Of course I have been rude to someone in a retail job, I don't think any of us can be guilt free of that one, but usually after their general disinterest or ineptitude.

Secondly to the rude customer are those who think its ok for their children to make a mess. I know I am paid to clean up but there is a difference between a few muffin crumbs and cakes that have blatently just been played with. I assume these parents don't allow their little darlings to throw cake around their own home but think its ok for the Joe behind the counter to clean up after their spawn because they wear a name badge.

I concede this post has been quite whiny but after full time work over the festive period I needed to vent. Luckily I have a very understanding manager in one job and my colleagues who also tolerate their job in my other.

(Speaking of human stupidity I have misplaced my 2012 diary.)