On the local train this morning, coming back from Downtown, my son and I met a couple of ladies, I'd say maybe 50 years old or so. They were on the way to work, so I asked them what they do and they told me that they were sign holders. You know, these are the people who rock out on the corner while holding Beazer or Mr. Pickles Sandwich Shop signs. This is typically one of those jobs on the "I'd rather not do that" list for many people.
These two women were glad to hold signs though, seemed content with the $9-10 per hour, happy for the workout it provided, and were midly joyful about work for the day.
In no way am I holding these ladies up as the pinnacle of having arrived, but I will say that it was refreshing to not play the "So, what do you do?" game as is often too typical of our interactions with others we meet for the first time. Why do we do that anyway? And what is the purpose of asking this question? Just think about what type of immediate judgements come to mind when hearing that a person is a lawyer, or janitor, pastor, artist, realtor, factory worker, teacher, politician, clerk at Walmart, car salesman, or sign holder.
Any thoughts?
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2 comments:
it really seems quite ridiculous. i think this also goes for initial judgement by looks. We look at a person and judge them as intelligent or average, safe or unsafe, interesting or boring, within our class or not, among myriad other qualities.
And like you said, the next question we ask is, "What do you do?" I have a friend who responds to that by saying, "I'm a lover of people," just because she feels her primary purpose in life is to love, whatever her career is.
It's so interesting that we have this natural desire to judge people by things on a surface level, when inner qualities can tell us so much more. What if the first question we asked was, "What drives you in life?" or something similar.
I guess that takes more effort and those kinds of things stay guarded from people we don't know too well.
Wow, that is a good question, Tony. I'll have to remember to ask that one.
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