If you know anything about France, you will know that they love administration, bureaucracy, rules and regulations. Let’s not say they love them, lets just say it’s a big part of life here. A good example of this red tape thinking for me is my friend from Kenya who is a qualified accountant. She has worked as an accountant in Kenya for years. However here in France through whatever legalese exists she is not recognised as an accountant and cannot practice. This is the same for doctors from Russia, and experts from almost anywhere else on the planet. There is no point arguing the logic. It’s just the way it is. I have often found the things I find illogical usually have some very solid logic behind them. In this case I fail to see it.
If you know anything about addicts and alcoholics it’s that they hate rules. Tell an alcoholic to do something and they will most likely not. It’s why some of the leading literature on the subject is couched in terms of suggestions rather than rules.
In trying to apply for my online degree, and get funding from my company. I find I am dealing with bureaucracy on two fronts. They University want me to claim my place and put down and down payment. My mentor company (French ) have advised me to pay nothing till my parent company approve. They also want and invoice with the amount my parent company will pay and the amount I will pay. The University don’t do that. In short the University required exam results, certifications, attestations and letters of motivation, so much so that I began to take it personally. The mentor company required all that paper work, plus all the paper work the University sent me, like the student manual the course outline etc; plus the specific invoices. They also wanted the course advertisement and the people to connect with in the university. It’s a lot of back and forth with me as the middle guy. I only get to learn in stages what is required. No one has a set list to start with. Eventually the mentor company will show every thing to the project manager who will approve then send it to HR in my Parent company. The parent company will make a decision and get back in touch with the mentor company and if it’s favourable will eventually pay the fees.
It doesn’t end there. I am also required to create an association. In other words a charity. I have been promised some seed money and I can’t get it without a bank account and charity number for the organisation. So I decided to forge ahead and create the charity online. I found out it’s not so simple. The charity needs to have met already, created a set of rules and kept minutes. The issue I have right now is that of the people who are vaguely interested in helping me, one is in New York, one in Donegal, one in Monaco and one in Nice. We have to approve and sign the paper work then submit the paper work for approval. At least we have access to online models of such paper work. So my solution is to grab an online meeting with everyone, and get electronic signatures. I have some resistance to that. I am telling myself a story I won’t be able to get these people to meet at the same time or agree on anything.
This may seem straight forward for anyone who is reading this. But I am an alcoholic, I have that tendency to sprint through the marathon, and start the sprint a day late. then not understand why everyone else hasn’t kept up with me or how they got ahead of me. I also collapse before the end in frustration. So at this point in time, I am trying to remind myself of a line I read frequently in the Big Book of AA, nothing , absolutely nothing happens in Gods world by mistake.
So with gritted teeth , I take a deep breath through my nose, I loosen my jaw, I feel the shoulders relax. I remind myself that a step forward has no size. Progress is not measured in feet and inches nor minutes or hours. This will all come together or it won’t. Forward movement is forward movement and even though I am fixed on an outcome, and I want that outcome yesterday, I have to allow the time. It’s the Universes way of giving me time to relax and enjoy life on life’s terms. It’s not a punishment. We are not here to suffer.