COMPLACENCY

I haven’t blogged in a while for a lot of reasons, but mainly because there really is nothing out there that piqued my interest.  It seems to me that it is still business as usual.  I’ve tried writing stuff about social events, current news and affairs, things that really should matter.  However, at the end of the day, I really don’t want to talk about something that has been hashed and rehashed over and over again.  Up until now.

Recently, I just got a promotion at work.  Of course, it was exciting and all, but that’s not what the topic of this blog is.  As long as I have worked with this company, I have been lucky enough to work with people I have had professional interactions in the past.  It helps, most especially since I wouldn’t have to start new working relationships with people I do not know.  Of the three times I have transferred, I knew at least 2 or 3 people in the group I was transferring into, so there is some sort of comfort zone already.  I figured, I won’t have to deal with new characters and wouldn’t have to size up people again.  Then again, I wouldn’t be a Rosedelian if things happen routinely.  In this case, I was transferred to a whole new ballgame – I have been transferred to work with people I have not even had a chance to say hi to.

So, when I started to work with my new group, I was brought back to that old, jittery feeling of being the new kid in school.  As most of those who personally know me, I have transferred to so many schools that I’m always the new kid in town.  You’d think that I should be used to it by now, but like I said, my prior transfers were very convenient in terms of working with familiar names and faces, it felt as if you were just meeting friends at different times and places.  However, this brand new transfer took me out of the comfort zone that I have been accustomed to.  In short, I became very complacent.

I guess that’s what I’m running my ahead up and about these days – complacency.  Often times, we have gotten so used to our daily routines and familiar surroundings that we tend to take for granted the things that we usually do.  For example, I have become so used to driving around to go places, near or far, that I never really thought about how it would be without a car.  Then, just last Tuesday, my truck finally said, “Eff it, I’m retiring,” and just wouldn’t start.  Even after getting it fixed and spending sizable amount of money to get it running, it has finally decided to die.  So, here I am, at the mercy of people who have cars to drive me around whilst I wait until I can buy another one, feeling as if I’m naked and exposed.  For the first time in a very long time, I feel as if I can’t do a darn thing.  Heck, I didn’t feel as helpless as I do now as when I lost my leg…LOL!

I heard on the radio last week that some people are afraid to divorce their spouses and would rather stay in a loveless marriage because they’re afraid to be alone again.  They figured that it would be easier to stay in a loveless relationship rather than start back from square one and search for the right one.   Even worse, people who are victims of abusive relationship would use their faith, saying that they entered into a marriage of vows – for better or for worse, in sickness and in health….yeah, I know the vows.  I recited them when I get married.  However, I don’t think God had planned for you to stay and die just because of your vows.  I think that using your faith is very easy albeit cowardly reason to use as an excuse.   If you really believe in your faith, then you would remember that Jesus also said, “Love one another as I love you,” which, if I remember my Theology class, is overwrites all the other commandments.  If that person loves you, then they wouldn’t hurt you.  In my humble opinion, people stay in abusive relationships because it would be easier to put up with the punches rather than start all over again.  In short, they became complacent.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that being complacent is all bad.  I mean, I’m very happy and content to be waking up to my husband’s snoring, and quite frankly, I don’t think I have a good night sleep without it….lol!   However, if we have become so used to things being the same over and over again, then the question I would ask is, what would you do if that complacency is taken away from you? 

The danger of being complacent is that somehow, we have become so accustomed to routines that we react negatively once our comfort zone is disturbed.  In the case of my new work assignment, I have to make sure that I don’t shock the new group I work with my bluntness and humor.  (Yeah, I gave them 2 weeks before I let them taste my humor – and they still like me. WINNING!) In most cases though, people react to changes aggressively that at times, they don’t see how they are in fact, hurting themselves more.  I mean, what if all the vegetables in the world have been forever wiped out and the only abundant food source we have is meat?  How would our vegan friends react to that?  Easy to say you’d rather die, but really, have you really been in a situation when the only thing you can eat is the one thing you say you’d never eat?  I mean, for crying out loud, my husband gives me the stinky eye when I suggest that maybe we should start becoming vegetarians.....lol!

I guess the question going through my head is, what do you do if you’re taken out of your comfort zone?  Do you try to take yourself back to that Zen where everything is just perfect, or do you proactively try to cope and see if you can adjust to the change?  There’s no right or wrong way to go about it, just your way.  Either way you go, it’s always YOUR choice.