Battling Hemmorhoids, Intending Asteroids
Even though we are now back home and working toward getting the store fully up & running, I'm finding that this Florida "journey" simply will not leave me alone, and so I am forced to really stop and look at it long and hard in an attempt to figure out what (if anything) might be done to simply shake loose the tendrils of CR madness which have attached themselves rather like hemmorhoids to my life.
Aside from my feelings for my mother (which, again, I'm going to file under the heading of "goes without saying"), I am STILL finding that the system of "government" might more accurately be called a system of abject madness - and one which, frankly, does not appear to function on ANY level.
Before leaving Florida, I took all steps to get my mother's care lined up - which included a lengthy encounter with Medicaid, which is discussed elsewhere in this thread. Yesterday, I received a letter from them saying thgey need further information. Fine, I'm thinking. I'll fax it or mail it or whatever needs to be done... except for one minor detail. The info requested is for "proof of other unearned income" and "proof of interest income." Since my mother receives neither, I am forced to ask... how does one prove a negative? Even in quantum mechanics, one cannot "prove" that something DOESN'T exist, yet it is clear that a simple letter stating that she receives nothing other than what has already been listed is not sufficient. "Proof must be provided." But... what IS "proof" in this case? ?????????
Okay, that's bad enough, but then the inevitable happens. I call the only phone # on the letter, which is allegedly for her case worker. I am shuffled through a 15 minute (no exaggeration) "automated operator" menu, and after diligently attempting to follow their instructions, the menu comes to the point of saying, "Please hold for customer assistance." So I wait another 10 minutes, at the end of which time this most pleasant voice tells me, "Due to extremely high calling volume, please try your call again later."
And it hangs up.
I have now gone through the same procedure 4 times this morning, which adds up to a grand total of over 2 hours wasted... only to continue getting the same results.
Since the deadline for compliance is 9/11 (who's surprised, eh?), I am on the verge of simply NOT-DOING anything, since I cannot seem to determine WHAT is being requested nor how to provide it. There is no fax number, no email, no contact info at all other than the one phone number and the website (which is EXACTLY the same as the automated operator)... yet the consequences of NOT-D0ING would seem to be severe indeed. Without this service, my mother... ? What? Is turned out onto the street like a mongrel dog in her final days? Returns to her home, where she cannot care for herself without 24-hour care (which, if she could afford THAT, none of this would be happening...)
So here I sit staring at the clock and the calendar and thinking of "being in the Now"... which would appear to be altogether impossible when dealing with government agencies and automated operator telephone systems.
From a wholly ruthless warrior perspective, the only winning move would seem to be washing my hands of all of it and letting the system be forced to deal with it as it unfolds. OTOH, is that "the right way to live" with regard to another human being who will suffer consequences if I cannot move the mountain which "the system" has placed in her path (and, subsequently, in mine)?
Sure, from a purely intellectual viewpoint, we can "resolve" this dilemma through acceptance or being in the now or detachment or any of a hundred other "methods", but at the bottom line of the human experience, I am asking the question of all of us - how does this intersect with "the right way to live"?
...and I'm also asking MYSELF what can be done about ANY of it in the world of ordinary affairs? If there is no one to speak to, if entropy has finally kicked the last upright out from under the rafters that supposedly hold up "society", what can any of us do on a purely individual basis to get through the day? A purely hypothetical question - posed to stimulate ALL our thinking. When the ordinary world REQUIRES things of us for survival & wellbeing (the most basic human rights), what is a sane being to do when s/he cannot seem to fulfill those requirements due to a breakdown in the system itself?
Can't sail a boat with a gaping hole in the bottom, eh?
Frankly, I';m pretty much at the stage of Intending a wayward asteroid deal this "society" the same fate the dinosaurs met. Our species has become altogether dysfunctional near as I can tell, and so the only solution may well be to wipe the slate clean and start over with stardust and spewing magma. Sounds good to me right about now. :\
Fresh out of butterflies & rainbows,
D