Mom's friend PL
Time out--I want to say a bit more about Christmas, but Mom's friend PL came over today and said some interesting things. She's spent most of her life in journalism, but has been around the block with New York professional life--lawyers, consultants, etc. She kept dropping hints today that she had dated a lot of big shots in her prime. I know that for a long time she was involved with some senator that tragically (from PL's and therefore my Mom's and therefore my side of the story) never married her. Now she's a librarian in an inner-city public school, which is a whole different world: she quoted one of the deans, on the subject of kids who never test well enough to pass out of middle school, as saying "Let's just hope they drop out of school when they're 17 and kill each other." She is very sympathetic and seems to find it very rewarding and touching, although she has interesting ideas about things herself. Another interesting line: "Sometimes I look at one of them and think, 'You're just cannon fodder for Bush's war'"--which is not ridiculous; many of the students see the military as a way out. Clearly, she disapproves (plot point! see below) She was really excited about the idea of putting up Despair, Inc. posters in the library: INDIFFERENCE and LIMITATIONS were favorites.
We got onto the subject of what I'm going to do this summer, and she started giving advice, which I was happy to listen to, since she has the aforementioned experience that spans across the business world, and I really want to find a way out of academia. At some point she started urging me to try to get a job for a law firm in New York City. Why? She said (I wrote it down):
"I think it's good to see naked power at a young age."
She said this in total seriousness, I think (it was only as an afterthought, after we had all laughed in appreciation of the audacity of this claim, that she added "I certainly did." Ba-dum...CHING!)
I had a lot of thoughts about this at the time--about what sort of power she was referring to, about what it meant that it was clearly distinct from the power people have in the military, about how I feel when I wield power (certain types of power?), whether power of the kind she was talking about was something I want, ultimately, etc. But I'm more tired than I thought I was when I planned on writing about this. So (and this never works):
Discuss.
Barring that, check this thing out.
We got onto the subject of what I'm going to do this summer, and she started giving advice, which I was happy to listen to, since she has the aforementioned experience that spans across the business world, and I really want to find a way out of academia. At some point she started urging me to try to get a job for a law firm in New York City. Why? She said (I wrote it down):
"I think it's good to see naked power at a young age."
She said this in total seriousness, I think (it was only as an afterthought, after we had all laughed in appreciation of the audacity of this claim, that she added "I certainly did." Ba-dum...CHING!)
I had a lot of thoughts about this at the time--about what sort of power she was referring to, about what it meant that it was clearly distinct from the power people have in the military, about how I feel when I wield power (certain types of power?), whether power of the kind she was talking about was something I want, ultimately, etc. But I'm more tired than I thought I was when I planned on writing about this. So (and this never works):
Discuss.
Barring that, check this thing out.