As I was sandwiched on the Red Line train yesterday morning, I wondered, “When did we become so important?” By we, I mean the inflamed sense of human importance bestowed upon employed people. I understand that Whitman writes and (and I’m not sure if I’ve already paraphrased it poorly in this blog or not), that we are here, and life exists. The powerful play goes on, and we will contribute a verse. Yet, when did our verses become more jangly and abrasive than an e.e. cummings line? Our verses have superseded the importance of our colleagues because we all have the same goal for our Act V: making it.
Supposedly, Washington DC is the city for us to make it. On paper, it’s true. Then again, on paper, Communism and my college boyfriend should have worked, and I’ve already broken up with one of those. The DMV (not the hellish department of motor vehicles, as the rest of the world calls it, but the DC, Maryland, and Virginia metropolitan areas) has some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Jobs for the most part, abound here. This is why government and politics majors from small liberal arts colleges around the country flock here like it’s mecca. Parents chide them to get off the couches from home, quit their jobs selling knives door to door (after all, their parents may have paid 100k+ to get their kids an education, only to have this tragic economy give them the opportunity to make them cut through sheetrock at living room demonstrations) and move to DC because it will save them. And perhaps, for the time being, it will.
I’m blessed to have a fantastic job where I fundamentally believe I make a difference. I work with large clients and government agencies, sometimes from the comfort of my pajamas on my bed at home. Yet, it is days where I go on-site for a client that make me remember just how much of a carwreck driven people become, even if they’re taking the metro.
I like to leave myself some extra time in the morning, to prepare for the inevitable. A missed stoplight, a turtle crossing, a sexy hitchhiker, whatever. Being late makes me more anxious than Michelle Bachman trying to remember her family history. Literally still in my neighborhood, I had to make a left turn since my street is too narrow for me to turn around in. Those who have experienced the joys of the highly sought after Highland View neighborhood know what turn I’m talking about. Anyways, since I don’t have a stop sign, I just turned right. Which is funny because the guy who did have the stop sign must have been so motivated by my attitude that he just went too—almost into the side of my car! This happened yesterday too, and I realized that we both timed our advents at the corner of Lauer and Oldham so well, it must be beshert. Idiot drivers happen every day in Maryland, but this same guy, two days in a row after almost hitting me, didn’t learn his lesson. And that’s when I realized—he is so focused on making it that he doesn’t worry how he’ll get there (perhaps by sending someone to the ER) as long as he gets there.
On the metro yesterday morning, I had to switch to the Blorange line to get to Capital South. As I disembarked from my warm cocoon of the red, I was pushed by a woman who just had to make the next Orange train. At this point, I was so ticked that my 65% complete Express crossword fell to the ground from her shove that I even yelled “There’s another train in three goddamn minutes!” I don’t think she heard but I got a “mmmHmmmm!” from the woman behind me. I don’t even know how to type what she said but take it as a large woman’s approval.
I expect that we all sacrifice for our careers but I’m seeing the cost as too high. When we forget human decency and how to delegate right of way at intersections, it’s gone too far. We may all think we’re important because we work with Federal agencies, high powered lobbyists, lawyers, non-profits and sports teams (yeah, I’m pretty much just outing all of my friends), but don’t forget you’re a human first. Our jobs are important but not at the cost of knocking others, and their crosswords, over, in selfish pursuit of an unobtainable goal to make it.
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