Crossroads ...

Watch out for traffic coming from other directions

Sometimes you find yourself at a point in your life where you have to make a decision, do you turn left or right or go straight ahead and accelarate into the distance. Or you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile ... Anyway. I have now come at such a crossing where several roads come together and I have to pick a new route into the future. Stay in my current job with colleagues I know well and work with in a pleasant way but without finding full satisfaction in and appreciation for the things I do? Or do I step out and take a new promising role in a new job with a new employer with new unknown people around me? This is my present situation and either choice has its advantages and downsides. But right staying where I am means taking no action which always is bad. Stepping out feels like running away.

However, I have done my best to make changes to my present situation, several times, to no avail. So, I do not feel like I am quitting, giving up. It is not running away, it is stepping out gracefully at the bus stop and getting onto another line going in another direction, the rest of my future.

The part about leaving colleagues, some of them can be called friends as well, that's the part that bothers me most. I have had a lot of fun (and distraction from the less joyous moments and understanding), so I admit that they have been important in my day to day life. Without sounding too sentimental they have kept me going. They and just burying myself in my work, shutting off from the daily, weekly harrassments from those who have made the time bad enough for me to now take the Big Plunge into Uncertainty again.

Thanks to all these people. (You know who you are.)

No politics please, or ...

It's hard to stay away from politics when the influence on your life is so big. This is true for national politics, but also for international important happenings like the US presidential elections.

Yes, it is coming closer and closer. There were a couple of TV debates or struggles, where each of the contestants tried to avoid making any clear statements as that might upset any of the floating voters that they need so badly. A race this close never brings out the best in both candidates or a nice clear cut view of their differing opinions. They always have be so careful with their wordings. Especially in sensitive areas, where moral issues are concerned: same sex marriage (aka partnership), stem cell research, abortus.

Then there is the obvious mud slinging which has now become statistical with number of times the other has voted against the reduction of something and the number of times he has in favor of increasing something else. To me this is pure statistics: only half the facts are given and they use to prove that the world is flat or banana shaped.

So, what's my stand on this? I guess someone would like to know that. (Or not, I don't care). Well, I always look at the United States to see things that will happen here in Europe in the next couple of years. We have seen McDonald's come over and multi-channel TV with the pleasures of daily soaps. So, it is with a worried mind that I look at the money that is involved in the elections for about any office in the US. Money seems to be the deciding factor and not the quality or ideas of the candidate. This goes for both current US Presidential candidates. Neither really has any appeal to me. Like I have read somewhere it is a choice between a candidate that pulled the US into a war and a candidate with a funny hair-do. Well, I then add to that, that it is easier to get a new hair cut then pull out of a war gracefully.

And life goes on ...