Mindfulness is very much a mental health buzzword. That’s not to dismiss it mind, it’s just one of those phrases that is open to interpretation, and those interpretations differ wildly. Some of them are helpful, and meaningful, and allow people to make use of this valuable technique. Some are built around shamelessly profiteering from other people’s misery. I’m not going to give you mine. The world doesn’t need another definition…

Imagine a road. It’s a well travelled road, lots of traffic. It joins two small towns, it doesn’t matter which ones. Now focus on a particular verge on a bend somewhere in the middle. Again, it doesn’t mater where. It’s a grassy verge, quite a lot of space between the kerb and the hedgerow that bounds a field with some anonymous crop growing in it. There’s a small ditch directly adjacent to the hedgerow, you know the sort.

Today, I failed. Yesterday, I also failed. I failed the day before too, as I do every day. Today, like yesterday, I failed to be well enough to work. There are two things wrong with this statement. The first is about class, hierarchy, and the boot-print of generations of exploitation of the working class. From not talking about politics, or wages, to not complaining when you get shit on, to never admitting you’re ill.