Thursday, October 09, 2003
Baby Seals
Judy Garland isn’t as great as I’d always heard. Maybe I’m hearing the booze and pills in her voice, but she ain’t all that. Her voice was gossamer in Wizard of Oz of course, pure and playful and clear. Seems in later years, it got a bit muddy, and playful turned into campy. I’ll admit, I’ve never been a fan of camp. Give me satire, irony, or pure melodrama… leave camp for the Boyscouts.
What I’m really talking about is expectations, and how they’re shattered by reality. The great landmarks are always so much shorter then they look in the brochures. The Mona Lisa is the size of a postage stamp. The most beautiful scenery in the world, is still just rocks and water arranged in a unique pattern with some garnish scattered around. Winning the lottery won’t prevent the icy hand of death from clutching your heart someday. The perfect lover has morning breath and a finite number of increasingly boring stories to tell at parties. Lobster is chewy and messy to eat. Your favorite TV show will always jump the shark after its best season. The beach smells and there’s jellyfish in the water. Dogs are dumb, cats pee on your bed.
I could go on, but if I did I might jump out a window… or I would if the maintenance people hadn’t screwed the windows shut in order to keep people from getting any fresh air whatsoever in this rusty, dank little department store.
I have an expectation that when I work someplace I hate, I will at least be compensated in money. I’ve had that expectation dashed now, as several of my paychecks have bounced, leaving me with an empty savings account. What do you do when this part of the social contract breaks down? The rational thing is to keep working, assuming that your employer is good for the money and will get it to you eventually. Or will they? At what point does good faith break down and ugly legal words take its place?
