So I was at the local Mac store this past Sunday when all of a sudden this intense applause breaks out- and I mean intense! It doesn't stop, it gets louder, stronger in increasingly nonstop waves. I was there playing with an iPad, one of the few modern day gadgets I find appealing even though I don't need it and can't afford it. So now I'm forced to look up and I'm straining to see who the fuck it is that started and continues to maintain such a commotion, and I see that people are making quite the effort to go up to said person, congratulate... him, and shake his hand. He slowly inches his way down the cavernous store aisle towards the door all the while shaking hands, being congratulated, getting hugged. Feel the love, baby! This is now threatening to surpass cult like behavior.
He's a relatively small, young, twenty something (Tom Cruise?- no he should be older now); he doesn't appear exceptional in any way. So who the fuck is he? I usually wouldn't give a shit, but it's still loud as all hell, if not louder, and I can't concentrate to make the iPad do what I want. So I start asking, "Who the fuck is he? Who the fuck is he?" And no one around me seems to know. He finally exits looking very much the embarrassed. The mania subsides.
He's a relatively small, young, twenty something (Tom Cruise?- no he should be older now); he doesn't appear exceptional in any way. So who the fuck is he? I usually wouldn't give a shit, but it's still loud as all hell, if not louder, and I can't concentrate to make the iPad do what I want. So I start asking, "Who the fuck is he? Who the fuck is he?" And no one around me seems to know. He finally exits looking very much the embarrassed. The mania subsides.
I go up to one of the still smiling Mac T shirt people and she enthusiastically blathers on about he's some kind of genius, just got promoted and "just went corporate," and that this is a tradition they do. "Like the waitresses singing Happy Birthday at Denny's?" I reply. He'll make more in one day than I make in months, and I couldn't even get the goddamn iPad to display my blog.
6 comments:
Did the corporate thing. Made the money. Now doing my own thing. Not making the money. Much happier.
Never went the corporate route, my highest paying job- a public school teacher. Not exactly top of the financial food chain, but it allowed me a yearly vacation, film, paper, chemicals, etc. all paid up front. As an instructor for a non profit, I now earn less than half that salary, a helluva lot less stress professionally, replaced by considerable financial stress living in debt and check to check on a less than extravagant lfe style. That said, I still got it better than others- but there's no reason why any able citizen should be denied a living wage.
Which non-profit? I worked for The United Way for awhile.
The ARC of San Francisco- love the job, but...
Wow I just checked out their website. Your a hero! That has to be some of the hardest work there is.
Hardly, Eric. But compared to my previous job- a walk in the park...
http://mrbellersneighborhood.com/author/stan-banos
Honestly, it never ceases to amaze- all the people who quietly work their butts off doing the jobs that have to be done, that no one else wants to do, all in relative anonymity for next to no pay, all the while providing the vital glue and last resources that help keep many a community from completely unraveling.
And they can be found in many a town, city and community throughout the land.
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