The entire world seems to be in a falling-apart mode right now…despite the news of the day, today, that the stock market has rallied dramatically. My work life, this semester, has been quite emotionally exhausting. The economy is one big gut-check experience after another. And it’s beyond belief that Sarah Palin is using rhetoric so inflammatory that it’s feeling like an old-time lynch mob is about to form.

Now, it the midst of all the election, economic and work frenzy, comes word that I need to head back to the Midwest for Dad’s funeral.

Soundtrack Suggestion 

It don’t come easy,
You know it don’t come easy.
It don’t come easy,
You know it don’t come easy…

(“It Don’t Come Easy– Ringo Starr)

I went in to get my every-four-weeks haircut yesterday. I have a rather-delightful young woman who does a great job for me every time (and for what she charges, it’s only fair). Of course, during the haircut, it’s not really typical to “just sit there.” Talking to each other is normal and expected.

This time, I started out the conversation by asking whether or not she’d watched the vice-presidential debate. And I offered up some of my own strongly-worded observations about the entire Palin debacle. Additionally, I included a description of the interactive manner in which I’d participated in the event (“Hack the Debate”), remarking that one of my comments (“tweets”) had appeared onscreen (on the Current television network).

During our chat, I discovered that she’s one of those rare “undecided” voters we keep hearing about. (Which was amazing news to me. I didn’t even know I knew anyone like that.)

It was only when we were just about finished up with the haircut that she asked me about work…to which, I sighed. And said that things were about the same.

She then made a remark that I found quite curious: namely her observation and question that “work really consumes you, doesn’t it?”

I found that so strange! I had just spent over a half-hour talking about national politics, my health issues and progress, the weather, and so on…never once mentioning work. And she still came up with the opinion that work consumes me.

I have no idea how I had transmitted that message. For over a year now, I have talked with her at length about my relationships, photography, blogging, health ups and downs, chronic pain, travel, cell-phone users, the state of Oregon, my impressions of Marin County and its bicyclists…well, you get the picture. I even remember one appointment when she asked about work and I suggested we talk about something else.

That she would identify me as someone “consumed” with work entirely baffles me. And I told her so. I countered with the belief that my job is one with a high-difficulty level, but that I aimed to have a balanced life – engaging in many interests outside of work. For example, I had just finished describing for her the routines I engage in every day to focus on my physical health.

This has set me to wondering about, again: what I say, how I say it, and how it’s received.

Communication. It’s such a mysterious process. Truly it is.

Would you like to watch a presidential (or vice-presidential) debate while simultaneously reading what people all over the world are, in the moment, writing about that very debate?

(I’m talking about something entirely different than the graphs provided by CNN  to instantaneously illustrate the reactions of various voting groups…)

Here’s the deal: on the Current cable television network last Friday they tried an entirely new approach to debate-viewing, called “Hack the Debate.” While Obama and McCain went at it, in almost real-time, on the bottom of the screen, the network displayed Twitter posts (discussed in my “Digital Intimacy”  essay of September 15) from folks who were tweeting about the debate. It was a pretty interesting process. A tweet would appear onscreen from someone, somewhere, and then slowly dissolve away while a new one appeared.

I have to admit that, although I found it fascinating, it was also a tad confusing. It was like having subtitles during a movie containing the director’s comments on the significance of the scene. I had a bit of a challenge listening to what Obama and McCain were saying, and how they were saying it, and at the same time reading what everyone else was thinking about what was going on. It was a LOT to pay attention to.

Especially because I was writing comments as well. Yes, I had my laptop in front of me and I was composing my own observations. (As far as I can tell, though, nothing of mine was on the air.) AND, I was monitoring Twitter’s own streaming coverage, with comments very quickly whizzing by at http://election.twitter.com/.

If you want to try a whole new debate-watching experience, catch Biden and Palin (if she’s still the nominee, that is) this week on Current (Comcast channel 107 in Marin). Better yet, get a Twitter account and join in on the fun!

I’m still trying to wrap my mind around what is happening here in this country with regard to the economy. Does anybody out there really get it?

Nobody I know does. And even the “experts” are struggling with their sense-making.

Maybe, if anyone saw this disaster coming, then, perhaps, we might have done a better job of heading it off? Of course, then, well, let me think: Bush is still running the country. So I guess there’s no one really minding the store.

I heard on both NPR and MSNBC this week that we came just this close to plunging into The Great Depression II. And, that we’re not out of this yet…despite the massive $700 billion federal bailout, we’re still looking for more businesses to fail, many more workers to lose their jobs.

I have to admit to being scared. In the post-911 era, it took three years for me to lose the last “permanent” job I had. I’ve struggled with my life, in one way or another, ever since. Then, earlier this year, I lost a double-digit percentage of my AIG-invested retirement funds before I made the move to a more conservative investment strategy. The new approach isn’t really earning me money anymore, but the bleeding, thank god, for the time-being, has been stopped.

What happens to me? ….what happens to us? …if we’re not able to work our way out of this crisis.

There’s a lot to think about here…