Happy Libra Full Moon
Happy Libra Full Moon.
This Aries Season I have been on the go. What comes very easily to me is being a workaholic. I can throw myself into my work and forget to take care of myself. This has been a month of trying to still give 100% at work while still giving 100% to myself. There was a moment this week where I stopped to think (whoa) and I realized that this isn’t just a response to my Catholic School trauma, but also a result of late-stage Capitalism.
Growing up, we were taught that it didn’t matter if your English teacher assigned you a 15 page paper when you already had a 20 page research paper due for Social Studies. It was inappropriate to ask for an extension. It was inappropriate to bring up your other class priorities to the teacher that was in front of your face. We had to suck it up and figure it out. That was just the way the world worked and they didn’t care about our feelings.
That was the crux of it. They didn’t care. The social duty of school is not to pass on the knowledge of later generations to the younger generations. The social duty of school is to create perfect worker bees to keep the capitalistic system running. School is 100% child care. If we actually cared about the education of the younger generation we would pay teachers the same as we pay lawyers and doctors. We would put most of our money into academy. Teachers would be paid for their planning time. They wouldn’t have to send “school lists” home. All children would have all the supplies they needed. Each school would have a state of the art science lab as well as a state of the art theater and art studio.
It has only gotten worse since I was in Elementary school. We are testing Elementary school kids to the point of giving them anxiety well into adulthood and then we are telling the adults that are suppose to be there to emotionally support them that if those kids do poorly on the test that they will lose their livelihood. So what do the adults do? They design ways to drill the students on facts and how to take a test instead of teaching them skills that will help them in life.
In 2002, there was a fire in my dorm. Someone put a fork in the microwave. This wasn’t just absent-mindedness. A 21 yr old full scholarship academic never learned that you shouldn’t put forks in the microwave. They were too busy learning facts and memorizing dates that they missed out learning basic life skills.
If you ask a current educator they will tell you that the first things that get caught are the arts programs in their schools, however, if the 80s and 90s the first things that actually got cut where life skill classes like home economics and wood shop. Many people are reaching adulthood without the ability to sew a button, change a tire, or boil water.
But Christie, I didn’t learn this in school, I choose to learn it on my own! Well thank you for highlighting your privilege. Perhaps, you had the privilege to have your mother or grandmother or another trusted adult at home to take the time to show you. Perhaps, you have had the privilege to own your own computer and be able to teach yourself on YouTube. Not everyone has this privilege. Many children have to work after school jobs. Many have to care for an older love one. Many have to rush home after-school to make sure they have enough natural daylight to finish their homework and once the sun goes down there isn’t much they can do.
Some people see Capitalism as just a system of supply and demand of goods and I guess in a way it is. The goods, however, are human beings. The Industrial Revolution gave birth to the 40 day work week, forcing humans to live increments of 8 hours and some people can live that way, but the majority of us cannot.
This Libra Full Moon in an attempt to combat how easily it is for me to fall into step with the capitalist system that makes me miserable. I am trying to tilt the scales back by doing things that make me happy. Listening to music at an obnoxious level that I can feel it vibrate inside me. (I think this is sensory seeking?) Reading Tarot Cards. Watching True Crime. Listening to True Crime podcasts.
How will you try to get back into balance?
