An Amazing Moment

I have been going to the local (franchised) Bagel shop for a long time now. One of the reasons I go to this specific place is because it is close to the Cathedral where my beautiful Runtyun sings for the choir. 

I have stated many times my opinion of the filter of organized religion on this and other places, so I will not do so again at this time. However, there is no denying the wonderful things parishioners have done because their God has deemed it right. The music alone, the way it wafts through the air and messages the ear is proof enough that a god exists and has direct control of our lives.

But, this is a discussion for another day. 

As I was saying, I was sitting at the shop when a wonderful lady walked in, in tow was an incredible little redheaded munchkin. I know it is corning, but this child is amazing. She is sweet and has not been infected by the cynicism so pervasive in more mature folk.

This corny little child saw me and my iPad the moment she walked in, yet she was smart. She waited for awhile before coming over to me. Eventually though, I saw from the corner of my eye a shadow slinking in my direction. I ignored her.

After all, I was in the middle of something. This logic did not work for an intrepid 2 1/2 year old with corn husk hair. She reached out to touch my computing space. I looked her in the eye and said that I was kinda busy, could she please wait a minute while I finished what I was doing.

Kids are wonderful beings, she persisted in trying to get my attention. I promised her that I would talk in a minute, but to please let me finish. I am not sure how she took it, but she left me with a smile that lightened my heart for a moment.

I finished what I was doing and found an image of an african dwarf frog and pulled it up. There was a movie too. My Runtyun had just invited two of these frogs into her aquarium. 

All of a sudden, through the corner of my eye there was a familiar shadow.

"Frog! Ribbit, ribbit!"

Being kind of a dolt, I was not sure what this amazing child knew, so I let her tell me what she wanted. She wanted to explore. Somehow she knew that my electronic thing could bridge gaps, bringing fun things to her. I don't think she had the sophisticated thinking to know how the flow of knowledge  my iPad could open for her. But her eyes filled with excitement when she looked at the screen and I felt her rush of excitement and wanted to help her find the wonders of the world.

At one point, she looked me in the eye and said, "Push Button?" her finger lingered over the home button. I ignored it, but she persisted. "OK, " I said. The light of happiness flashed through her pretty pink cheeks. Her eyes opened even wider when the screen changed to the home screen. She giggled. 

We played Clumsy Ninja until it was time for her to go. She could not read the instructions, but learned what to do when I told her. Her attending adults gathered around and watched for a moment. Her Mother said it was time to go and I saw this amazing child's resistance to leave this moment of excitement, and I hoped, learning. I looked at her and saw her amazing excitement and promised we would see each other again.

olc

A few thoughts about money and compensation

I have done no research on what I am about to rant about. I have not even talked it through with any one except my inner, crazy brain. But I feel qualified to write about it nontheless.

So deal with it my loyal readers. Meh!

I have talked about my financial woes a few times in the past. I have also talked about my additive past a little. It is a funny yet sad thing though, back in the daize when I let my addictive tendencies rule my life, I could live an OK life and not worry about money too much.

Now I am not controlled by the need to spend money on drugs, yet I worry constantly about making it to the next pay check with any money left over for food,clothes, much less a movie and popcorn, for the Runtyun and me. It wears me down.

So, when I got straight and moved here from the poisonous world I lived in for too long, I decided I would go to school and redefine who I was as a person. It worked to a degree, yet my earning potential seemed to decline. I do not regret my choice to restart my education nor my abstinence and would do it again given the chance. However, an Associate Degree is a nice thing to have, but opens few doors. 

I felt the need to get back into the working world again, but could not go back to cooking for reasons I have stated before. I found a job as an independent contracting courier. The position sounded good, even though I knew the money was less than premium. I thought I could do it for a New York Minute, then move on.

Well, a few years later and I am still at it. Not because this is a field I want to retire from, but because I owe too much money to leave. I need this work to pay off debts to my employer before I can get another job. I blame no one but me for the decisions I have made, yet I am frustrated with the fate I have created for myself. 

I have had many conversations with my employer about the need to earn more money and pay off my debt, yet my sales pitches go to deaf ears. So, I feel compelled to explain motivation and rewards here. This action may help me to solidify further conversations.

As I see it there are 3 levels of payment in the world I live in. 

The first is the one I am in. It consists of barely enough to live off of. Having to juggle bills on a monthly basis; robbing Peter to pay Paul, if you will. Now employers like this because the employee needs every scrap of work to get as much pay as possible. This means working through every inconvenience, all the while sacrificing family obligations just to make a buck.

This mode is good for the employer, because he or she, has people motivated to work whenever something is thrown at them. However, the workforce is poorly motivated to do the job well. They just need the money and have little motivation except the money that is portioned out. There is little gratification and nothing but work and constant worry. While the employer is satisfied, the employee lives in a world of frustration, never achieving anything. Stuck in a swamp of debt and worry. The employee is distracted and may not do the job as well as he or she could. This distraction, when taken to its extreme, leads to poor workmanship and silly mistakes because he or she, just does not care. 

Now, the next level of recompense allows the employee to get ahead of bills and live in our material world, yet fosters a laziness in the worker the employer may not want while generating a lack of purpose for the employee.

The employee feels he or she makes enough to skip working sometimes because they have enough to get by on, so there is little motivation for the employee to work harder than is absolutely needed. Their life's view is filtered with blinders and they do not want to work more, they feel they have done enough to get by and are not motivated to do more, or maybe he is doing some other work and finds it difficult to find time beyond his normal work hours. "What is the purpose?" they ask themselves, "I have enough and all I'll get, if I inconvenience myself, is little money. But my boss gets a nice big payoff for my inconvenience. And furthermore, this extra work takes away from my time doing things I want to do, like spending time with family."

This attitude is not good for any one.

Finally, we get to the third tier of reasonable payment for services. This one motivates the employee to work and makes the employer happy because his people are working and doing a quality job all the while making him money. The workforce is happy and motivated, thus it is willing to work more---making their boss more money in the long run.

In my humble opinion, this level of payment works for everyone. While the employer does not make as much as either of the first two, he or she, gets a loyal workforce that is motivated to go beyond the regular call of duty, thus performing at a level that is not only fair to him or her, but makes the employer a satisfactory amount of money. This model of recompense works for both sides.

Needless to say, I am in the first tier recompense and wish to elevate myself to the last. Yes, greed does have something to do with my desire for more money, but I also know that my job would be done better, to say nothing about my attitude would be improved. I would take on extra work more often if I knew I was being compensated all the time at level that allowed me to live a more fulfilling life.

olc