11.10.2011

We are pretty insulated from the daily news of the world. If we don't want to hear about the failing economy or the double speak of politicians, then we don't have to. I like being in a situation where I have full control over how many dissenting opinions I have to hear in any particular day, without totally cutting myself off from all media. I get most of my world news from The Daily Show :-D and it's 20-30 minutes that E and I look forward too four days a week. He loves the theme music, but he has heard it consistently since he was born so...duh.  E does seem to have an old soul for music. He'll dance happily to Micheal Jackson or Earth Wind and Fire, but covers his ears if I play a song by Fergie and turns the tv off for Nik & Jay music videos.

The small bits of the US 24 hour cable news circuit that I do hear always depress me. I'm glad the Occupy Movement has changed some focus of the world's discussion. Work and jobs are subjects we talk about frequently with Danish people lately, because there are not enough here for the young people, just like everywhere else. When Marc and I decided to have children, we also decided that I would keep them at home, teach them at home. My job would be raising children. And, I think if we were in Canada we might be having the second one by now. But in Denmark, we have changed our tune. Our issues with the Canadian system... the North American system... were that kids should be kids for as long as they are kids. I have no desire, even now, to send my child(ren) to a place where the main lessons are sit down, be quiet and do what you are told. Sure they are learning to read, write, problem solve, etc. but they can only have access to those things after they have learned the first lesson: submission. I have a problem with that because there is no real reason for doing it that way- except it is conceived as an easier for the adults to manage a room of children.

In Denmark school is about play. For a long time the kids don't have any real responsibility to perform. If they want to learn something the teachers are happy to assist them, but they aren't required to do anything. Sure they have to learn to play well with the other children. They do have rules to follow and respect must be given to their teachers, their peers and themselves. But, the teachers are not asking them to much beyond that for the first five years of schooling, at least. Because we are going to trust the Danish school system to help us raise our children, my job as at home caregiver and teacher is not available anymore. So, about fifteen years earlier then I thought it would happen, I am wrapping my head around re-entering the work force. It's a big deal for me and also not really what I wanted this post to be about.

I am going to be working because its how I will get more time to myself to write, to sew, to paint, to run and hopefully to do other things as well. But, many of these "other things" require a house. Marc and I have been looking into buying a house here. As a one income family we are unique to the banks here and that has caused us some issues. The banks look at us, at our life style and our budget and see that yes we could technically afford to buy a house. Then they think of all these what ifs that make them less willing to give us a mortgage. It doesn't help that we want a "project" house either...

All the things that are important to the bank about us buying a house are not the things that are important to us. So many things in life have no dollar signs attached and, yet, they have worth. We want a yard for our son to play in, we want to grow our own food in a garden and keep chickens to lay eggs for us. We want to remodel a bathroom on our own and replace a roof with our friends. We want to have a dinner party with more than six people at the table. We want a place to invite our friends from North America to come stay, and stay comfortably. We want a roof over our heads which is ours, a permanent place.

But, what counts to make all these other things that we really care about happen? money in and money out. I think money is so stupid. It's a lame thing to be focused on, it's a waste of time and energy to care about. And that is why I tune out the world, especially these days, as much as I can. It focuses way to much on money. Electronic numbers in computers more then anything- it is barely physical anymore. It's not greed that bugs me about money. It isn't the cost of things or the waste of bonuses. It's the lack of any actual foundation that the system is based on. Capitalism is not a fulfilling way of life. The parts of life that mean something don't have stock values. Why do people care about being profitable over everything else? because it's easy to quantify. Just like it's easy to say that 5 year old sitting in a chair doing a worksheet quietly is good. 
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