Burn'd Out Hollow Core

Life is a symbiotic relationship, or I should say many strive for it to be so. We strive, and fight to retain some sort of balance in our life - and in many religions the goal of harmony is strongly emphasized.

Yet life isn't perfect, and perfect harmony is something few achieve. There are givers and takers, hunters and prey, victimizer and victim etc. Everything has a payoff and very few enjoy or want to be taken advantage of, and yet we all look for a free lunch.

I'd have to say that the number one thing society pushes for anymore is dependability. They don't care if you are happy, sad, blue, green, or ready to jump - as long as you are there to get the job done, all is right in the world. This isn't an old idea - many feel that humans were shifted to an automaton existence with the start of the Industrial Revolution when the goal was to out last the hardware on the line pushing goods needed to power 'bigger and better living'.

Now we have computers, more sophisticated toys/machines, and an amazing array of goods and services to choose from. However one thing hasn't changed - if you don't have someone dependable who knows how and is willing to run them they are nothing more than impressive paperweights.

I think this is why the idea of Human Resources became so popular, for without the living grist to make the economy flow our world turns into the house in Ray Bradbury's story "August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains" (original poem here).

There seems to be a balance issue though between the happy productive worker, and the one that has been used up, taken advantage of and, well burned out.

Keep in mind burn out can be over pretty much anything - it's not limited to work, or relationships. It can be caused by just a general over indulgence, or overwhelming from something that we experience in this life. The interesting thing about burn out though is it can be either limted to a single item or expanded to include the reality in which we live (the workforce is just an easy target - please don't use it as a red herring :)



Here's where the post takes a twist how does one overcome burn out? True it is a state of mind, but is it something we just deal with - become the masochist and ask for another round of getting knocked around til we either learn to love it or snap and go ballistic? Do we leave the situation, walk out and write them off the page, moving on to other things?


I know someone is going to bring up negotiations - what do you negotiate for? Is negotiated appreciation really appreciation?



Gotta think on this one. . .