Reclaiming My Right To Vote
Now that I’m back in the employment saddle, there are a few luxuries I get to enjoy again. Coffee Bean coffee is one. Fancy lunch meat is another. I even indulge in the occasional cab ride. And now more than ever, I savor each and every one of them.
But luxuries are luxuries. With or without them, life goes on (albeit less deliciously).
Far more significant in the unemploymentality journey are the rights we relinquish, then take back, upon re-entry to the workforce.
Things like health care.
Things like dignity and human contact.
Things like your democratic right to vote… for the next American Idol. It was momentous for me anyway.
Two months ago, I wouldn’t have dreamed of wasting precious text credits repeatedly voting for my favorites. I stood idoly by (sorry) as the first few contestants were booted off the show. I felt powerless. Redundant, above and beyond my lack of employment. But I’m back in the game now – and it is about winning.
Did I shed a tear last night, as Anoop Desai and Lil Rounds sang their parting songs? Maybe just a lil’ one (good God, someone stop me). At least I could take satisfaction in knowing I’d done my part to save my Idols of choice.
Fingers crossed, I still have a job by the time the top twelve go on tour. Adam, Allison and Danny, live and in the flesh? Now that’s a luxury I can’t live without.
Good thanks for the info
Interesting that dignity made your list of “rights” to take back upon re-employment. This reflects the value our country places on being employed. God forbid you’re unemployed–it means you have no dignity. Please. What about being a great person? What about the rest of you? I recently heard a eulogy on NPR about someone who had achieved quite a bit in her life professionally. And that’s great. But I’m sure this woman had also led an extraordinary personal life. I’ll bet she was a good daughter, friend, aunt, and mother. Yet nothing was said about any of these things. As a country, we need to get over this reliance on employment as the sole thing that defines who we are. Ask yourself: when you’re on your deathbed, what will you be asking yourself? Will it be, “Was I the best producer ever? Was I a good video editor? A good executive?” Or will it be, “Was I a good father, mother, friend, brother, sister, son, daughter, and person?” For all of you who may be unemployed at the moment, please know that it doesn’t define you. Rather, YOU define you. Keep that in mind.
What Freeheeler said, and…
Believe me, nobody gets irony like I do, but the irony is completely undone by the fact that you actually do waste your time watching that moronic drivel. It almost seems like you do waste your money voting for those people since you seem to know how it’s done.
It bugged me that “human contact” was listed as one of the “rights” you get back when you go back to work. Frankly, I’ve disliked many of the pricks I was forced to work with over the years. I’m finding that I get just as much human contact and much more fulfilling human contact now that I’m hustling my own way in this world. I no longer feel like some pathetic, dependent schlub sucking at the tired teat of corporate America. Actually, I’m starting to think that unemployment solves more problems than it creates.
Now if we could just figure out a way to make health care available for everybody, including entrepreneurial types, artists, and the like — you know, those trying to make things happen in the real world — then we’re right on our way to a better world than the one we grew up in.
Gesh! Freeheeler & SurviveUnemployment need to LIGHTEN UP!!! I believe Lyndsay was referring to her dignity/human contact because people treat temps so horribly (Lyndsay please correct me if I am wrong). And if she does feel better about herself by having a permanent job, so what? I’m sure she also finds herself to be a good daughter, friend, etc. She’s trying to keep things jovial and light. She’s good at irony and turning life’s sticky moments into something you can laugh at. We all need to laugh more and stop taking everything so seriously.
Your point is well taken, JT. But am I wrong? The last time you were at a party or some other social gathering surrounded by people you’ve never met, how many times were you asked, “So, what do you do? What’s your line of work?” Were you even ONCE asked, “So, tell me about your family…, What are your hobbies?, What do you like to do?” Those questions almost never come up. Believe me, I’ve lightened up, precisely because I don’t take my professional life, which is just one aspect of who I am, so seriously.
JT – Thanks! You’re correct on all fronts except that I’m Tania, not Lyndsay.
I wish I was though. She rocks!
SurviveUnemployment, I have to ask: What’s moronic about raw talent?!
Oh how I miss those rights, but then again I never really exercised them. Congratulations on being one of The Few, The Proud, The Employed. It’s understandable that a lot of people are frustrated and many are just scared but that is still not carte blanche to be rude to others. Working for the people I used to work for was great, but I couldn’t be myself. Even in the most casual and laid back of environments there is always that fine line that will make people wonder “Why did we hire that guy/gal?” I’m not talking about the creepy stalker, that guy was fired months ago I’m referring to that quiet individual that perhaps does not know nor cares about American Idol. The guy that works with the art gallery crowd but longs for monster truck rallies. Drinks wine and eats cheese for work related social events and heads off to a hole in a wall for a Sam Adams and some wings. Unemployment can be both liberating and traumatic and hopefully most of us will be able to enjoy those little luxuries once again. Oh God how I miss laser tag night!
Freeheeler — you are dead-on about the social gathering conversations. I have my high school reunion in two weeks and highly doubt that I’m going to be asked, “So, what outdoor activities do you enjoy?”
I had the same experience when I used to hang with yuppies in ballroom dance parties.
Now I hang in nightclubs in immigrant neighborhoods.
Besides being a lot cheaper, the conversations (mostly in spanish) usually centers around where they come from, and their family status.
Illegal immigrant hotties are also great fun!