Is it naive of me to think that I may be able to stick out the economic crisis for a while longer and make good of my meek & miserable financial situation by investing every last minute of my free time as an unemployed NPO Management & Development Strategist into volunteerism??
If I can't get paid to cultivate & enhance my professional skills & talents in the for-profit workforce, then why not sign on to volunteer or intern as an upper level technical or professional specialties adviser for a social benefiting charitable organization at the local, state or national level.
Nonprofits of all shapes & sizes are presently faced with ever greater challenges, when valiantly striving to sustain & enrich their programming, in order to fulfill their constantly evolving but always ubiquitously salient mission(s), even when financial support from individual, corporate or government donors in the for-profit sector is painfully slow in coming.
It is in the rank & file lineup of unpaid volunteers & interns for such organizations where my advanced education & skill sets will not only be immensely valued but further developed, and of course, put to good use!
That is why I participate as a volunteer member of the Board of Directors for two NPOs with distinctly different (yet each vitally important!) purpose, goals & missions: one serving the Public Health & Human Services sector of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the other, an International Development nonprofit based in the MetroDC Area that serves the capacity-building needs of the Government of Sierra Leone.
That is also why I participate as a distinguished Artist in Residence with a local, San Francisco Bay Area experimental performance group comprised of disabled LGBTQQI & gender variant artists, as well as disabled people of color. Furthermore, it is why I remain poised to sign on as a volunteer Development Associate for the same disabled persons' performance group, if ever they should need me, and also why I continue to educate & train myself in NPO Management & Development strategies through low-to-no cost skills building workshops & seminars offered by ... yup, you guessed it!! ... Employment Development NPOs.
On a more personal (and eventually, a more allegorical) note, I'd like to explain a little of my back-story & perspective on the economic crisis. While the initial circumstances of my long-term unemployment are quite out of the ordinary, my disabling illness & injury over the past 3-9YRS have earned me access to public health & social welfare benefits that have sustained my illuxurious lifestyle below the national economic poverty line.
However, out of necessity or sheer force of will perhaps, I have learned to benefit considerably from and maximize upon the immense freedom than comes with considering my financial instability as status quo. I've learned to recognize, with my eyes, heart & mind aimed toward optimism, that downward trends in the economy (or in any sector of our society, for that matter!) could never be eternally perpetuated, constant nor unrelenting.
I have breached the threshold of death in the last 10 years more often than I care to acknowledge; although, no matter how degraded & destitute, downtrodden, diseased & depressed I have found myself during the short unsettling span of a mere decade, as most people do -- in fact, as most socio-economic systems do! -- I have rebounded time & time again.
Life is a rollercoaster by taranoel, on Flickr®
Copyright © 2010 taranoel | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
It is the hills, not the valleys to which I look forward, hopefully. However, I try to remain realistic when the rusty-wheeled wagon of this rollercoaster we call life reaches its low points, remembering that it is our descent downward into those valleys which is most torturously jarring and hypersonic speedily fast. Furthermore, it is our ascent back up to the highest peek of our most goodly fortune that is stupendously suspenseful & slow.
Often, our wagon wheels must lock into a motorized track for assistance getting up these hills. But, eventually, we make it! The closer we are to approaching the sun-crested hilltops and the longer our wagon ride stays suspended in motion at the mountains peak, the happier, more satisfied & content we seem to be. That's the thrill of the ride! Those are the rules of motion!
The rollercoaster of life, just like the wildly raucous & rambunctious swirly whirling sudden dips & dives of our global (yes, GLOBAL!!) economy, is meant to climb very slowly out of stupendously speedy descents. All we can do is pray that the wagon wheels, which pummel life quickly forward toward adventure at every turn, do in fact stay on track, so that we don't suffer a cataclysmic crash!
Hell, then there would be severed limbs, blood, guts & brains strewn or splattered everywhere! Although, even if we ever did succumb to such a terrifying scenario, the lucky few (or many more than meets the eye!) survivors would simply pay homage to the victims, discard their remains, repair & resolve any functional weaknesses of the wagon & its wheels through implementation of carefully charted & planned design innovations, and begin the ride again right from where we were thrown off. That's the thrill of the ride! Those are the rules of motion! This is the adventure we call life, as we (are not necessarily permitted to) chose it!
Is this terribly trite & adolescent literary device of mine making much sense to you all? I guess, what I really want to know is, after reading my written response to unemployment & economic crisis, whether or not your hope & optimism has been rekindled or restored?? Curious to gauge my impact...
Sincere Regards,
Matt(e)o | QHereKidSF
Matthew D. Blanchard
San Francisco, CA USA
http://bit.ly/qherekidsf
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