Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

What A Fine Cliche

One good thing about being me is that I have the face of a bossy asshat that makes you hate me on sight because it is generally assumed that people with such faces will ultimately rule the known universe. Imagine then, your relief when you discover that I am not a bossy asshat, but a friendly one and generous with my clams as well. The realization compels you to accept me into your group and embrace me as a brother.

In a conversation with some junior staff well into their middle-ages, I gleaned some new insights into life that I had not previously been aware of. One of them told me about how she had earlier in life struggled as a factory worker, and then worked in a market shelling fish before somehow stumbling upon her current job. Everynight she goes to bed full of gratitude that she has a clerical job in an air-conditioned office with a steady paycheck. Mind you, she has completed 20 years of service this year.

And I had earlier assumed that she and her compatriots must hate their boring, mind-numbing and repetitive work for to me, any job involving data-entry or processing paperwork must be akin to what you will be sentenced to in hell in the afterlife for not being a decent person. She does her job with great care and takes pride in her work. Without her, I would not be able to do my own cushy useless parasitic job.

What is it about my generation that makes us a bunch of self-asorbed whiners incapable of appreciating anything and everything?

I am a young grasshopper and have a lot to learn.

It’s society today - we think we deserve the best while doing the least amount of work. Our parents are right in telling us we have it too easy, because we do.
And now we expect everything else to come easy to us as well.