Like most American teenagers, I officially became a wage slave at age 16 when my guardians no longer desired to fund all my various male, teenager escapades and fashionable footwear and bell bottoms. And they were blessed in that they had the law, the American culture, and apparently God to back them up. That is because at age 16 I could legally acquire my first wage slave job.
Unlike most Americans however, my initial wage slave tour of duty was very short lived indeed. That is because at age 18 I entered the Roman Catholic seminary studying for the priesthood. As such, I was not allowed to have a wage slave "job" for the entire duration of the time I was studying to become a catholic priest. For me that meant I entered the wage slave market at age 16, left at age 18, and did not return again until age 26. That puts me in a very small and rarefied group of Americans, I am imagining. These are the ages in which most young people in America are learning many of the skills of the trade of wage slavery. This is when the indoctrination usually wholeheartedly begins. Additionally, I have had the great fortune of having numerous respites from wage slavery throughout my life. These respites, among many other highly valued treasures presented by those respites, afforded me a great deal of time to do deep inner inquiry and investigation and extremely valuable psychological and emotional deepening minus the constant distraction of the deafening background noise of wage slavery.
My last wage slave respite began on November 14, 2008 when I was laid off from my wage slave job at The San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Although there were some clearly shady and funky aspects to this lay off and the challenge to keep myself above water financially were daily and arduous, at best. Still, when this respite came to an official end on July 1, 2012, I was a changed man. I no longer had any illusions nor justifications about nor feelings of endearment whatsoever, for my own wage slavery. Interestingly, I now find myself once again in the role of a wage slave. I am relatively certain that this however, will be my last stint as such.
To Be Continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment