in a handbasket

 Well, it happened. I have seen memes about it, tongue in cheek comments about teaching millennials basic life skills, and yesterday on the news they were at just such a school. A school in Portland , Maine, of all places, I would have expected California or Washington State to be the first, that does just that. They were showing these twenty something kids how to sew on a button and cook. The woman explaining the curriculum in cooking said he was teaching basic knife skills. I thought, you mean like not cutting yourself? What are basic knife skills? Never cut toward yourself and don't pick it up by the blade. After that lesson what's next? As far as sewing on a button what do you need to know? The holes were the thread goes through as pretty obvious to me. I hope they are teaching basic needle skills, don't stick yourself! I watched in amusement as they interviewed these students. They really had no clue about the most basic of tasks to be done around the house. Life skills they call them. Well, I didn't go to school for that, I just lived life and figured that out for myself. I blame this on this throw away society we are living in. Kids aren't learning to take care of anything, just replace it. I remember when my Mom would get those iron on patches for the knees of our jeans. Now the kids are buying jeans with the holes already in them! They can't even do that for themselves. I learned to iron those patches on and how to sew the edges so they wouldn't peel off again. Mom didn't teach me, I just figured that out by myself. I knew not to stick the needle in my fingers or my arm for that matter. Also knew not to sniff paint fumes without an intervention, but that is another lesson. 

 As I watched this news piece I couldn't help but laugh. The big push these days is for everyone to get a college education. We all need degrees. So we will have all these educated people that can't cook or sew on a button but have liberal arts degrees. Yeah, that ought to be great for the nation. I see this commercial on television all the time. An ex-marine with his pregnant wife are having there in-laws over for dinner. The water heater begins to leak, he calls the insurance company, not a plumber, and they take care of it. Then he is explaining how that little bit of water really " rocked our world! " The implication is this man is a combat veteran, Sgt Baker, but a water leak rocks his world. Huh? Well, bottom line is, buy the insurance. A school for life skills. I have to laugh at the name, life skills. Are there death skills? How about common sense, do you have a school for that? Sounds like a lot of people need just that. You know they didn't say so but I'm betting if you complete the course you get a certificate suitable for framing. You probably get that certificate whether you finish the course or not as long as you pay for it. At a minimum you participated right. Ah, just put a trophy on my tombstone and we call it a day. I sure hope 2019 see's a change in direction for this country. We are headin' for hell in a handbasket as Grandma used to say.