How To: Talk To A Friend Who’s Been Laid Off

Very important article for everyone to read!  Who doesn’t know someone who’s been laid off?  And if you’re one of the five people in America who DOESN’T know someone YET, trust me…you WILL.  So read up, take notes, and please…pretty, pretty, pretty please don’t ask “How’s the job hunt going?”  It is the one question we all dread and, as the last two weeks have shown me, it’s the single most asked question.  I can only assume people ask because it’s so typical in American culture to ask how your job is going…which I’ve also always kind of hated…so I can only assume people feel free to ask because they think that you’re job hunt is your new job…and it is…but the MAJOR difference is that most people engaged in job hunting aren’t in this position by choice so the question is a painful jab followed by some salt and lemon juice in the festering wound.  Also, in case you haven’t noticed…job hunting REALLY sucks…more so than any crappy 9-5…even ones that involve copious verbal abuse and drama.  Trust me, I speak from experience.  If the jobless person brings it up, then it’s fair game…but otherwise, just don’t mention it-just stick to the list and buy us some drinks…as many as you can afford to.

How To: Talk To A Friend Who’s Been Laid Off.

Cue the Locusts!

Holy shit-it really is the Great Depression!  First the economic collapse and now the Dust Bowl is coming back!  Not sure how many people know what the Dust Bowl really entailed and I’m certainly no expert but I know that it irrevocably changed the ecology of many of the western states.  My cousins had a farm in Oregon where they used to grow sugar cane BEFORE the Dust Bowl…now…it’s impossible to imagine anything growing without irrigation other than desert sage.  The land is completely arid and parched but perfect for farming flowers for seed.  A few years back, they were digging a foundation and discovered a gatepost from the first farm 12 feet down.  When the family had moved back after the dust bowl, they presumed their houses and farm had been destroyed by the storms and had no idea that it was actually buried under 12 feet of unusable, nutrient-depleted dirt and soil.  I can’t imagine the area ever having been a sugar cane farm…but I really can’t imagine how devastating it must have been for that family to return to their homestead… which was once a tropical paradise…and find a completely stripped and barren landscape with no shelter or signs of sustenance.

Drought Adds to Hardships in California

Silver lining-if you’re looking to write the next great American novel, “Go West”-to quote the Village People!  Steinbeck certainly turned the Dust Bowl into pay dirt.  So if you can stomach being on the front lines of this unfolding human tragedy and ecological disaster, you’ll be sitting on Oprah’s couch before you know it!

Wiki Dust Bowl