24-52-2013: Sunny Skies and Cloudy Attitudes

June 14, 2013 – This morning, when I took the bus downtown, the weather was not so nice as in this reflection, neither was the attitude of the woman sitting across from me.

I sat down and a moment later a woman sat down across from me, and she plunked a small child in the seat next to me. The boy couldn’t have been more than four, and he was well behaved, an ordinary, cheerful, somewhat chatty and inquisitive kid. I don’t know if the woman was his mother or his nanny, but she was nasty.

She snarked at him loudly a couple of times, something about “Do you want me to repeat what you said last night for everyone to hear?” And then told him to sit there and not get up.

I faded out for a bit, watched the inlet slip by under the bridge, and then as we travelled along Georgia Street I had trouble believing my ears. The boy had said something about the subway (They were headed to the Canada Line as I was), and what he wanted to be when he grew up. The response she gave him went on for blocks and was rather offensive.

She shook his arm and said “Absolutely not! You are too good to work for somebody else! You should never work for others! Your $200,000 education at Waldorf is worth more than that and you are better than that! When you start school this fall you had better get thoughts like that out of your head. You have to invent something, be better, and never aspire to work for others!!!”

Nice.

I felt like turning to her and congratulating her on quite likely offending everyone in hearing range. I wanted to tell her that I’ve been self employed, and I chose to go back to working for an organization for many reasons, one of which is that to do what I wanted to do was simply not possible unless in the position I finally managed to access after a lot of hard work and patience. To suggest that those who work for others are less worthy is, well, offensive! Some people work at things because they are passionate about what they do and there is no other mechanism for doing the work. And other people don’t want the instability or stress of being at the top, or being self employed. Some people like a predictable income and the perks and benefits that may come with some careers.

But I didn’t, because she was the same nationality as two women in my building and, although I am being terribly stereotypical, they both have the same means of dealing with people – nice if they are getting what they want, or yelling and screaming when they aren’t. I wasn’t int he mood for a confrontation.

The world is a big place, and the options it offers are so much more varied than they were a generation ago. Why not let children be children, use their imaginations, and enjoy their childhood. It’s so fleeting. Kids that age should lie on the grass and see rabbits and trains in the clouds.

The day has been improving steadily and the forecast for tomorrow is mostly sun! Looking forward to a day long ride south of the line tomorrow. I intend to release that inner child and play on bikes all day.