Twirling and spinning through space our minds can only comprehend a little bit. Distracted constantly by things that require our attention. These daily events that all require attention of some sort become the tapestry that forms our lives. We float in our bubbles interacting and fusing with them as they contact our surface. 

Recently a new starter has begun to work with us in our little bubble. She is an older woman who somehow managed to to talk her way into this job. Her lack of skills needed to perform the job competently extends beyond just lacking in experience. There are other more practical aspects that fall outside the general sphere. Some people have a tendancy to pick up things quickly and replicate and build upon the initial instructions given filling in the gaps as the general philosophy of what we do becomes clear. To someone like me who has done this job for a long time now this is easy to do as the way things get done here vary mainly due to topography of the environment and not the general sense of what has to be done. Our new colleague lacks this critical replicatory skill necessary to quickly be initiated into more tasks. Having been stuck at a level that still requires some of her tasks to be supervised has created some friction as one grits their teeth and remains cordial. 

I’m trying to take another way and try to invest some time even if it is explaining the same thing over again. For some people learning at a more advanced age is difficult. Some of this can be forgiven if there is a cheerful personality or some sort of redeeming feature. I must admit that her voice and the way that she interacts with people has been a bit grating but it could also be nerves. The way she works and the thinking that obviously happens as she thinks of the next step to take is relevatory. My colleagues have a much shorter fuse than I do. I am experimenting with how much I can teach her in order to perform the tasks required. 

We had a lad come in to work as a clinical assistant in our department. He has had a number of years in this role working in MRI but never in PET. He managed to catch on to what his role was expected to be quite quickly. He is much younger but it is apparent that he is quick on his feet and catches on fast. The system is new to him but the system has simmilar controls to some of the other scanners that he has worked on. His experience at all the various other departments has forced him to break down what is expected of him and perform what needs to be done quickly. He managed to learn and perform these tasks within a day and had an affable and easy going personality that added to the environment. 

Our lives at work are spent inside one room shielded from the photon emissions radiating from our patients. There is a mix of personalities and one has to be quick witted to get some of the jokes that naturally arise from every day conversations. There is mounting pressure to book patients as the number of requests for scans has suddenly increased as all the consultants have returned from their hols. Our long term clinical assistant has been forced to do more booking and less assisting. It is a job she dislikes strongly but performs out of a sense of duty as it is part of her job description. Another colleague that was performing this duty was off sick and now she is on hols. 

What is there really that can be done? What is needed are some more people in order to fulfill the necessary roles. People with the necessary skills that can function within this environment. It’s really not that bad here as the atmosphere is mostly filled with laughter even when someone is whinging about this, that or some other thing. We are paid to execute a number of procedures during the day. I’m just a one of the spokes in the wheel and each one of us has forces pulling on us that we have to withstand.  This is how a bit of drama enters into our world. 

It goes without saying that the events in the most closely watched election of our time is proceeding accordingly. What was a bombshell on the Friday turned into a world wide talking point. If someone behaved like that inside a club at some point they would get thrown out or get beaten up by someone. It may be a conversation that few express but the vast majority of people don’t act or think that way at all. As the week progressed and some who experienced this came out it turned into a deflection and attack. This is what happens when someone is cornered and wounded. They start to lash out and become viscious sending this whole enterprise into the gutter further. The candidate from the GOP is not a nice man and the years he spent building himself up to this point is slowly becoming trashed by his historical behavior.

Why are people still willing to vote for him? There are a few elements that come into this. He first is that he is seen as an anti-establishment person. Paradoxically he comes from a wealthy background and has always aspired to be one of the wealthy elite. Somehow he doesn’t strike me as a revolutionary but for those who believe that the world is being run by others outside the government he would be that chaotic cherub that stirs the calm seas. There is also the fact that there is still a strong prejudice that infects the population that harkens back to the struggles that African Americans have had dice their time here. Years of struggle to gain equality and respect and now this scapegoat are the people from southern parts of North America that come and supposedly steal all the jobs and scrounge for benefits. 

What about the other sex that has been tarnished in this as well. How does it look when a man demeans a woman by commenting on her looks and to do so in such a public manner. If any one of the stories is well documented it’s the one given by the former Miss America. It shows something about the person now vying for the ultimate office. This kind of autocratic behavior is not what a democracy is all about. How would a person like that care about the effects of his behavior on people he would deem ‘undesirable’?

This candidate does take away from a closer evaluation of the other candidate. Their behavior and their mistakes. The past has a funny way of catching up to everyone. A lifetime of toil undone by mistakes. Scrutiny is being muddled in all of this. Both candidate’s past have something to hide and each will say that it is being blown out of proportion but it is clear in this case what not to chose. A choice has to be made and we will see what comes of all of this. It is interesting to note however that it is true that the female candidate has probably the most experience out of anyone running for the past forty years or so except maybe Dole. This is something different from all the other candidates as maybe the soohistication of her understanding will bring an interesting perspective to this position. Someone sophisticated and intelligent has to be in that role. Someone who has learned from their mistakes. 

Here in the UK the whole Brexit issue is also becoming a reality. The pound is taking a beating on the markets as money flows out and soon business will follow. So much depends on these negotiations. The integration that the UK has with Europe is immense and to cut the strings will require pain. Is the pain going to be greater than can be tolerated? Will it even happen? The problem is that they won’t get a better deal and it will cause a whole bunch of problems for the whole of Europe. These problems are going to reverberate worldwide and this stagnation that has slowly grilled the planet will continue and may even go worse. 

The reality is that even though life is not that bad there are a lot of individuals that have been left out. There are a lot of individuals all over the world that are not happy with the way their life is heading. So many are denied their chance to a better life and even with hard work and toil it will not get them anywhere. Our pursuit of goods is killing the planet but we are also being denied the chance to do something about it and again that is because of cost. It’s too expensive to clean the world and if we ignore it for a while longer maybe it’ll pass. 

Will that candidate do anything about that? What about the wars and conflicts or those financial disputes? Our futures are being sabotaged in some way but we also have to carry on and persist in our pursuit. Our individual lives averaged and analyzed becomes the momentum and inertia that carries us forward. We probably work too much and are too tired to do more. We are distracted and lose focus with the mundane. The carrot is just out of reach and we pursue it to ever greater heights.