Getting Physical... Physical!

I had a physical today. I tried earlier in the week, and I failed. They got physical with me today. Hands on my nuts. Finger up my butt. Needle in my arm. Radiation in my chest. Tones in my ears. Images on my eyes. Steel on my chest. I passed! I was worried. Who would worry about finding information about your aging body? Well, if it effected your prospects for employment it might. HIV. Hepatitis. Drug use. What are the requirements for adequate employment in our country? Physical dexterity? Overall good health. No dead limbs. Seizures? Good acuity. When you think about the obesity problem we have (Honey, we're killing the kids!) Diabetes. Heart disease. Cancer. Drug abuse. Well, I feel qualified to have a good job, not a shit job. Raking leaves. Shovling shit. Carrying boxes. Loading trucks. I have done most of that, and it's not fun. I am well-trained in my profession, artistic actually, but those skills seem to pale in our current world. Karioke has replaced live bands. Disney has cut their live music. Schools are starving for money to support the arts. What are our priorities in education? The three R's? Computer programming? Data base operator? Door opener? Hamburger frier? Stock clerk? How about Kenneth Lay's job? CEO! I have no desire to ever be a CEO. I have no idea what they do. I never went to business school. If we live in a republic with Capitalism as our system, it seems business courses should be required of everyone, not humanities. Why have we been pitching these for so long, if business is what we need to know to become a rich CEO? Are we born to sell? I chose the arts, because I am good at it, because it is fun, and because it is fulfilling. I like the feeling of making money, but at the end of the day.... Will that huge house and all the security give you a warm bubbly feeling? I don't know, because I have never had it. I never took one business course, and I feel behind the times. Lots of older people have been struggling with their skills becoming out-of-date. Multi-tasking online? I'll pass. I made a decision I should not feel guilty for only being able to do certain things, especially at the same time. There are things I do better than most, but I do them in quiet isolation, one at a time. The result is better that way. Concentration it provides, Yoda says. I stopped working on my doctorate for a while, because I could not find the peace and solidarity to think. Bombardment at every turn it seemed. Noise. Distraction. Hub bub. Art is not devised in that situation, and so we have the new millennium. Art lives in the time it takes to create it. A process, nurtured, sheltered, like our schools once were. Watch a good movie and you will see this process, a hypothetical, altered reality of fiction or realism, unfolding with real time. That seems to be gone. We now live in a world of Ritalin, Oxycontin, Valium, Crystal Meth, and a slew of other new drugs to counter the effects of our world gone bad. What happened? How did we get to be in such a fucking hurry, driving, screaming, shouting, shooting? What happened to pink and green, Izod, and mall hair? What are our aspirations? Sex, drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll? That was the 80's. Still waiting for the voice of the 21st century...... and waiting....... and waiting. Leave it to chance? Osama? George? Ever changing. Modulating. Populating. Exfoliating. Trials and tribulations. Undulations? Specifications? I'd like to see those, Mr. President. The Specifications of our country. That's it! May we see the plans, Mr. President, the blueprints?