Rules

For awhile now I have been COMPLETELY ANGRY about bureaucracy, how it limits service, how it squashes creativity, and how its rules and processes get fossilized into "that's the way it is." (The other side of the coin is management that changes rules and processes on a weekly basis, creating the scary instability that so many people have to work in.)

Either way of "doing business" counts on people being sheep, just doing what they're told, accepting it, not even noticing that they have lost their nerve, their joy, their compassion for those they encounter during the day.

If I hear one more time how "the government" is the root of all evil, I will scream. Exactly how do people think business does, when it comes to stupid bureaucratic processes that impede progress? Heck, small businesses, families, classrooms, churches -- it just seems like groups of people in general gravitate toward institutionalization and sameness, making up stupid rules as they go, for no reason whatsoever or for some reason nobody even remembers.

Then the institution must work hard to keep itself alive, fighting change, or pretending to change, or saying one thing and continuing to do the other (it's called lying).

I am a social worker. My job is to help people negotiate "the system," aka bureaucracies that administer government support programs. The particular group of people I serve is the elderly (and their families). While individuals who work in "the system" are -- not always, but generally reasonable and polite when I telephone them on my clients' behalf, the outcomes are typically negative for my clients. The paperwork is lengthy, repetitive, and intrusive. The benefits -- if eventually offered -- are often vastly underadequate to the need. The rules of the programs are difficult -- for me! -- to understand. Often -- often!! -- clients will get to the end of the process, hear what the benefit actually is and how it will affect them -- and they refuse! And I don't blame them!

There is a huge group of people with needs -- and a very large group of bureaucracies that hold the keys. This is not "service." This is not even "helpful." It's demeaning, confusing, and dehumanizing. Just what people need toward the end of life.

Are we all in this together? Or not? I think -- not. How unfortunate that we put our trust in huge corporate/governmental entities that fail us anyway (if we work in them or want to get something out of them), and how unfortunate that we imagine that one political party or another is going to change that. The parties themselves are bureaucracies.

RANT.

So I guess for me, my job is to act as little like a bureaucrat as possible. To imagine new things. To make compassionate connections. To be genuine and not promise things I do not even plan to provide. To educate people realistically about what to expect and how they can manage the stress of bumping up against the bureaucracy. To always always communicate to people that they are priceless and valuable, worth much more than those forms and rule books ever could be.

At Home

Little things help to create a feeling of "being home."

This week, Husband and I bought bookshelves for the living room (a room we rarely spend any time in at all) and organized books and memorabilia on these shelves that flank the fireplace.

Preparing for a dinner party last night, Husband spent much time during the day figuring out where our framed pictures and art should go on the living/dining area walls.

And then last night we had two couples over for dinner and conversation on the deck with the wonderful view of the water and mountains behind us.

At one point during the evening I walked through the living room and had that great feeling of being "at home," not just being in a nice place for a little while, not just visiting, not just existing. The room looks wonderful, and is perfectly personal.

I can imagine spending alot more time in that room now, reading, conversing, reflecting, laughing.