On Children

One interview for two jobs with four people was grueling. With all of my practice interviewing I don't worry about the interview much, but after all that interviewing with no resulting job it is difficult now not to doubt myself. These were both lower level temporary jobs through September, but they seem to have a great deal of potential for advancement and permanence. They both start April 18 and include full benefits, including dental, so if I get a job with the state I will put off the dental appointment I made.

Even here the dentist would be $219 for a cleaning, x-rays, and exam. I think it's been about four years since I've been to the dentist, except to repair a painful cracked filling with a cavity and Mom paid for that trip. People living on the edge from paycheck to paycheck do not have $219 for the dentist, just like they do not have the means to buy a more fuel efficient car, unless they have a Mom with an extra one. Idaho must have realized their gas prices were below average and the price jumped again yesterday to $3.57. Or maybe the increase was due to our current President's callous remarks making it clear he wants the price of gas to go much higher.

There were only three of us at the Artist's Way and we are all restless. One's heater went out and one's house purchase is falling through. She was buying a house for $129,000 and the appraisal came through at $101,000. The house was a flip and the price seems to have been based on what the seller wanted and not reality. This same kind of appraiser discrepancy was happening in CA before I left, no one really knows how much any house is worth today and I'm glad I decided not to be an appraiser. Anyway, I was feeling personal unrest, weather unrest, and world unrest and those feelings seem to be going around.

I am avoiding the next few topics from Wisdom of the Ages because I do not like the quotes, so today I am just including one of my favorites. I may have included this one before, but the topic of children came up and I like the sentiment in Kahlil Gibran's "On Children" from The Prophet,

"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable."

I feel better about things when there is something I can do. I am fine when I am taking actions, but dealing with situations where there is nothing more I can do makes me nuts. One more week and Boise high temperatures should be back in the 70's. That will help. Maybe I will have a job by next week. That will help, too.