FYI: Fwig is still alive

I apologize for my dreadful absence of late. Although, from what I've heard through the grapevine (out there in the physical world) few of us in my demented little circle of blog buddies have been very active of late. I hope Claudia Supermom is the exception. She's a trouper. The rock. Reliable. I trust there are many chapters in the kidlet chronicles to catch up on and doing so shall be a treat as always.

I know what my problem is. Too many commitments and not enough motivation. Why can't I maintain a doable agenda? I've got a calendar and a wristwatch. What am I missing? Why is it that the further I get behind in life the lazier I get? Is that how it is with everyone?

I know what Poetry Coach would say. 'Universal forces...' 'Retribution...' 'From he who hath little much shall be taken...' Veiled references to a malevolent super power...

[Sigh].

Why does everything have to boil down to the unbreakable grasp of the Devil with him? Why can't it just be as simple as a tweak in the work-family balance equation?

And who coined that hopelessly inadequate phrase anyway? Who the hell has work-family balance issues and not work-family-other work-art-spirituality-charity-societal bullshit-balance issues?

What in hell have we done to ourselves?

Thank god for technology though. It could have been worse. Technology, miniaturization, information sharing, robotics, mass-production... Thank god we can now accomplish everything we once did but with a fraction of the human effort. Thank god for all this extra time it's given us. Thank god for this life of leisure. All this meditation and learning and creative pursuit and sharing of ideas. All this freedom! All this transcendence!

Thank god we didn't just create more work for ourselves and bigger, costlier needs. Thank god we didn't just fall into mindless consumerism, materialism, social posturing, keeping-up-with-Joneses. Can you imagine if we cared about all that? Acquiring Lexuses and bigger homes and fantasizing that such would make us admired and not merely despised? Could you imagine what kind of hell on earth that would be? Wouldn't you just want to kill yourself?

Thank god we're a smarter beast than that.

Thank god.