Sunday, January 11, 2009

Local Social Conditions

I have lead a sheltered life, even though we dealt with the public and their health every day for nearly 30 years.

Visiting with some people from around here, coming to my house, sitting across from me on my sofa, sharing all kinds of stories and experiences--all kinds of people being more honest and vulnerable than usual--has been a bit shocking.

It is easy to be shocked and easy to be uppidy. But this is something different.

I don't know where to begin.

From the drug use, to the alcohol use, to the living together, to the changing partners and allegiances, to the deception involved in drug testing in the trades and oil industry, to the ostracism of non-smokers in workplaces (because they don't go out with others on smoke breaks), to the sitting around watching TV and eating ice-cream and getting humongously fat, to the babysitting of little children that nearly choke to death because the self-same sitters/relatives are watching TV and eating ice cream, to the depression, schizophenia and medications required... Unsettling revelations of all kinds.

Gibbons/Bon Accord, I am told, is a slum. Sherwood Park and St. Albert are hardly better, only the drugs are more expensive and harder.

However, since Stefan's funeral the approach to stop signs is said to be executed with more care by many and the partying this weekend was subdued, apparently, I am told.

What is one supposed to do with this? We used to go to youthgroup, sing, do bible study, hike, play soccer, go camping with no sex, no alcohol, no drugs. That sort of thing is unimaginable at this point for many -- boring, staid, "unsociable".

2 comments:

Bror Erickson said...

Pray Brigitte.
That is what one does with the realities of this world. Some of us were blessed with a more or less sheltered life. A few of us for a time left that shelter for the adventure. But in reality, life has always been like this for the majority of people. The weakness of this life is its emptiness. It wears thin. The gospel has the power to give these people true life. And I dare say it isn't all that boring. But perhaps reading St. Augustine's "Confessions" can put some of this in perspective.

Brigitte said...

Thanks, Bror. I will pray more, but at the moment it just causes me to bawl.