It has been 5 weeks since we returned from our great adventure. When I travel I find that I see a world which is much more real than the one I left. The real world is out there and I don’t think it exists in the office. After about 4 weeks of travelling I start to get home sick, but I wonder if that feeling would pass after a while if I kept travelling?
If I tried to break past the home sickness barrier, keep travelling and don’t stop, what would happen? Could I find people along the way who would be able to keep my company? Going from hostel to hostel, town to town.
I typically work half the week in an office and half the time visiting people. I am lucky to be able to get out of the office. A typical office is set up to have many features. You are given everything to complete a task within the bounds of that job. You get a desk, chair, printer, kitchen with a few appliances, water cooler, enough lighting, a heater which is always on to high or cooling too cold. In all honesty I think all these things keep you weak. No variety in life creates weakness.
My office is a place to move bits of paper that honestly have very little purpose. Many of these bits of paper are only necessary because politicians and lawyers invented their existence under various laws or policies. If you measured their effectiveness or cost-benefit ratio most people would gasp.
The organisation that I work for could be dramatically overhauled with the assistance of a few simple technological tools. This would be easy if not for the fact that it is a social work industry where no one understands technology. We write reports, file photos, rename files. I have no joke been asked how to open outlook.
Working away at those bits of paper is the paid objective. Praise sometimes comes if you complete tasks on time. If you are noticed, you can play the politics game and become a people pleaser. You can gain points and become part of the inner circle. You also get to witness people get upset when a piece of paper is not delivered on time, or completed the wrong way. If a document is late people start pounding those keyboards and indirectly accusing people of not being good at their jobs.
However, Australians very rarely realise how lucky we are. Our needs are all met. We all seem to live in our own seperate houses. Sometimes someone is on the news for living in a tent, but I am reasonably certain this could be avoided in most cases. Every one of us has enough money for food, necessities and recreation.
For now, I am back to a normal routine. But reality is out there and I plan to return to it soon.