We could find that we're all alone/ In the dream of the proud
I figured I was grown-up at age 4. Or at least my parents thought so. I really thought I was a grownup when I graduated high school at 17, I was ready to get out of the house, ready to take off...I wasn't ready for anything. (College was fantastically fun, but it wasn't grown up). Then I graduated from college and took a "gap" year, playing the "mommy" for my parents. Then, I thought, "If this is being grown up, then I'm moving to Never-never land." So I went to law school, hoping that I could postpone adulthood for the next 3 years. (Never mind that I got married in the middle of it, or that "law school" is probably not the least psychically damaging way of avoiding adulthood.) Then I graduated from law school (yay!) and passed the bar (yay!) and took a first job as not-a-lawyer working in the compliance department of a large corporation.
At 26, I'm beginning to see another side of adulthood: The one where you force yourself to get up to work every day, well, because you have a mortgage and like to eat food. Perhaps herein lies the beginning of wisdom.
You know the film Office Space never made as much sense to me until I started working a prairie dog in a cubicle farm. We're colonial creatures, office workers, but instead of cooperative like corals, we're as combatative as meerkats. I never thought adults could have so many problems getting stuff done, or communicating efficiently. I never before realized what hindrance email is to actual productivity, in the guise of documentation and "FYI"...it all just becomes white noise after awhile.
Perhaps its just my overall pessimism these days (or maybe because I've started reading the business section of the newspaper), but its hard for me to see the good in human beings. (Part of it also maybe that my job involves handling people calling me very upset about money and legal paperwork, which I'm striving not to take personally, especially when the issues they're venting about are completely out of my control.)
Siddartha Gautama, on his excursions from the palace, realized that the lot of humanity (well, everything, really, if I remember East Asian Buddhism class) is to suffer. And in that recognition lies the beginnings of wisdom. The daddy-llama has always pointed out there is a difference between raw intelligence and wisdom. Perhaps, at the end of each day, I'm a little wiser than I was the day before. And more cognizant of the fact I should probably invest in some squishy stress toys for my cubicle or practice deep breathing exercises.
At 26, I'm beginning to see another side of adulthood: The one where you force yourself to get up to work every day, well, because you have a mortgage and like to eat food. Perhaps herein lies the beginning of wisdom.
You know the film Office Space never made as much sense to me until I started working a prairie dog in a cubicle farm. We're colonial creatures, office workers, but instead of cooperative like corals, we're as combatative as meerkats. I never thought adults could have so many problems getting stuff done, or communicating efficiently. I never before realized what hindrance email is to actual productivity, in the guise of documentation and "FYI"...it all just becomes white noise after awhile.
Perhaps its just my overall pessimism these days (or maybe because I've started reading the business section of the newspaper), but its hard for me to see the good in human beings. (Part of it also maybe that my job involves handling people calling me very upset about money and legal paperwork, which I'm striving not to take personally, especially when the issues they're venting about are completely out of my control.)
Siddartha Gautama, on his excursions from the palace, realized that the lot of humanity (well, everything, really, if I remember East Asian Buddhism class) is to suffer. And in that recognition lies the beginnings of wisdom. The daddy-llama has always pointed out there is a difference between raw intelligence and wisdom. Perhaps, at the end of each day, I'm a little wiser than I was the day before. And more cognizant of the fact I should probably invest in some squishy stress toys for my cubicle or practice deep breathing exercises.