Monday, June 19, 2006 | Responses to What's Up Here is the first of several responses to my check-in question this morning... Hi Eric,   Thanks for asking for impressions of the time. Also, I love Planet Waves and want to say that you're doing a great job. thankyouthankyouthankyou -   There are a couple of things I notice, besides that everything seems so speeded up.   One of the big things for me is realizing how different the employment world is. I recently quit my job before being fired -- the non profit I was working for is in financial trouble so they hired a new HR guy, a hatchet man who is underhandedly calling people on the carpet for being inefficient, making mistakes, etc., and basically saying if you don't quit we'll fire you. That way they don't have to pay unemployment insurance. I hear that this is happening a lot now and companies are hiring temps to do jobs rather than pay benefits, etc. And the temp agencies pay lowlowlow wages. I live in Boston, but I think this is happening in other places, too.  It's hard to tell what's happening to the economy but I know that the price of everything seems to be inching up -- especially here, which is not a cheap place to live.   Gone are the days when a person could get a job with security, where you'd stay until you retired and get a pension. Most people leave now after three years at a place. I also freelance so I'm taking the opportunity to build my business and have accepted totally that that's the only way to go -- be self employed, put my energy into that. As the companies/organizations struggle financially, office politics become deadly -- people are so freaked out by television, the news, the war, the cost of living -- it's all so intense and it all focuses in the workplace where in my opinion there is a tremendous amoung of tension and dog-eat-dog. People get petty and mean.     I think everyone is traumatized by the brazen corruption in the government, which, face it, didn't start with this administration BUT it has been/is the most horrific on all fronts. I personally feel some despair that we will ever have fair elections in this country. It really annoys me when I read anything about the elections of 2000 and 2004 because it so obvious that Gore won, that Kerry won, that Bush is in power illegally. Isn't there some way that he and Cheney and all of them could be arrested for stealing the election? I guess not.   And when you think about global warming, etc., it's not a happy time. In addition, I think all the toxins released into the atmosphere in the last year by Katrina, the tsunami, the chemical spills in Europe, Russia and other places -- our waters are really getting the brunt of all this and I know that we feel it, it's affecting us all. I lived in the Catskills for a long time where the air is fresh and pure and there aren't many people or cars and now, living in a city, well, I'm so aware of pollution.   At the same time I feel that there is so much opportunity to create what you want, what I want in so many ways -- that vibrationally it's easier to do that than ever before. The challenge is to stay above the fray and maintain some peace of mind and I do that or try to do it through spiritual practices, without which I don't know how anyone is still standing today. I also try to limit media intake. It's just overwhelming sometimes and so negative.   Another bright spot is the, finally, focus on obesity -- it's finally coming out that processed sugar consumption is causing so much damage -- the sugar lobby and food companies are culpable in my opinion, just as the tobacco companies were/are. Did you know that the sugar lobby financially supports the American Diabetes Association and so of course the ADA says that sugar does not cause diabetes? The sugar industry also funds the World Health Organization and threatened to withdraw funding if WHO stuck by it's recommendations to cut processed sugar consumption. But politicians here are now getting behind the idea that if we don't do something about the eating habits of our children, we're all in big trouble. So, I think that's good and in general I think there is a growing awareness and consciousness in the world that in some way is I hope balancing the darkness.   you're the best - Terry Thanks Terry, for your observations -- and thank you for your kudos...I must pass the credit to the awesome team that stands in front of, behind, next to and all around me. http://ericfrancis.com/contact.html