That's What I Think

Just last week a friend of mine was telling me how she's organizing a national contest that involves pianists from a range of different places as well as walks of life. She told me waitresses, laborers, all types of people who are gifted with that type of musical ability will compete during this event next week. I didn't get any more details than that, or the official name of the contest. I believe she is going to be sending me more information, in case I want to volunteer to help prepare for it with her this weekend.

However, that snippet of conversation between us, during a quick snack break in the office cafeteria, really made me do a double take. I guess, like everyone, I have my own ideas of how things are and aren't, and often think people can be neatly categorized into neatly labeled packages. I have to remind myself now and then that just because a person waitresses at a restaurant or shines shoes for a living -- that doesn't mean that what we see is the total sum of who they are.

I don't believe I'm the only one who makes snap judgments in this way. I'm kind of ashamed that I do. I just assume that a person working in the auto parts store never went to college or even dreamed of it. I really can't talk, at 35 years old, with no degree to speak of. It just never happened for me. The timing was never right when I was young and wanted it so badly I could taste it. By the time the opportunities were more available to me I was making a good living and needed the full-time salary to survive; so I couldn't just quit to attend school. I tried more than once to attend evening classes, and it interfered with so many other things I wanted to do in life -- which was, well...to have a life. I wasn't able to make that commitment that many other working adults do for years in order to have the honor of a degree bestowed upon them. I don't know if I ever will. I have no energy, willpower, much less mental acuity left at the end of the working day. I jumped in with the best intentions at a few different schools, many times. I've had to put that dream on the backburner. You can't live in this society without working full-time, and going to classes late into the night and trying to rise early is not an option for me.

Anyway...maybe these hardworking people I see in restaurants, or working on construction projects by the side of a busy highway, are more dedicated than I am. Maybe they do what they do just to bide their time as they struggle through long hours of college courses that will, in the long run, send them into careers more to their liking. We can't know everything by the skin on the outside of one another. So I know that I need to work on not assuming I know everything about other people from what I see on the outside.

My friend's mention of this competition really brought this home for me. Maybe some people have menial jobs or quiet, simple lives. But deep inside of some of them, as in everyone, something surprising lives and breathes that might astonish us if we better took the time to know them.

Let's make this improved perception of those around us something that we take to heart, and not be so quick to throw away the chance to meet amazing people.

Recently I read someone's blog. I don't recall whose it was. But the writer made a list of things that defined her - likes and dislikes, etc.

Because I love scrawling lists and random thoughts on receipts and the backs of index cards, etc. (linear thinking is for the birds), I decided to apply that obsession to a blog entry and slap down the beginnings of my own list. I plan to try to hit 100 items, but so far I've only made it to #29.

1 - I love a challenge, puzzles, crosswords, etc.

2 - My favorite way to drive is across open country, the windows down, hair blowing in the wind and some road trip tunes on the radio.

3 - My favorite date is not a fancy restaurant, but a picnic on a nice day on some soft grass, with nowhere to rush off to.

4 - My favorite item of clothing is a broken-in pair of blue jeans. If I could, I'd stay in worn jeans, sandals and floral blouses all of the time.

5 - When people say, "Shed-U-Ele," I want to shake them in the way you should never, never, shake a baby.

6 - Humor, to me -- that unabashed ability to laugh that shakes a person and those around him or her to the bone -- is one of the most important qualities in a friend or love interest.

7 - I love the electric feeling in the air moments before a late-afternoon or evening thunderstorm, and then the resulting heavy rain that pelts the windows.

8 - I love the smell of freshly cut grass.

9 - I love books so enjoyable that I lose myself in them.

10 - I most want to travel to Ljubljana, Slovenia; and Australia and Prague, and maybe return to Alaska and Switzerland one day.

11 - I want to return for a few days to my humble Alabama hometown of a few hundred residents, just to look around and see what I remember, to come full-circle.

12 - Nothing's as good as a slice of pound cake or warm homemade chocolate chip cookies with a tall, cold glass of milk.

13 - When I first joined the Army, I was the fastest runner out of 60-something people in my platoon and once ran a 6:15 mile.

14 - I collect shot glasses from the places I go.

15 - I'm a Virgo, born on September 15.

16 - On the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator, I'm an ENFP.

17 - I occasionally lucid-dream.

18 - My favorite books to read are nonfictional: Travelogues, sociological topics, books about small-town life, like those by Garrison Keillor - but fictional books do grab me now and then, when I need an escape.

19 - I have no qualms about going to any restaurant and sitting at a table for one.

20 - My two passions in life are photography and writing. I think it's because I have always felt that even mundane everyday things are worth recording. There lies the depth of our lives in those small, short moments.

21- I'm not a neat freak, although I play one in my current residence. I don't need to make the bed each morning to be happy.

22 - I placed in spelling bees and French contests in middle and high school.

23 - I used to be painfully shy. It was almost incapacitating until I joined the Army.

24 - I pride myself on seeking to know more and explore more in life.

25 - I wish I got out more and did some walking and sightseeing in the District on weekends or evenings.

26 - I love doing things spontaneously. I'm not very consistent, but I am spontaneous.

27 - I make a mean guacamole. That's about as close as I come to cooking, besides bacon and eggs.

28 - I'd much rather walk a little farther than be the lazy American and go to my car just to drive down a few thousand feet to park somewhere else and get out.

29 - In the past 10 years of my life, I've had sleep paralysis a handful of times. It's weeeiiirrrddd, but totally harmless.

I think one day when I've had my fill of the Washington DC Metro area I might like to move back down South or to the Midwest.

Find Your Spot is a fun website I found years ago. It suggests U.S. locales where you might feel at home. Just for shits and grins, I took the quiz again to see where I might want to end up, that is according to the answers I provided to the various questions in the quiz.

So, my results are posted here.

I'm a proud member of the U.S. Army National Guard's 29th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment out of Baltimore, MD. In that unit, I'm a photo/print journalist. During my two weeks of annual training recently, I took part in covering Fuerzas Comando 2008, a rigorous competition featuring special operations forces teams (including our own U.S. participants) from 17 countries, from Central, South and North America, as well as the Caribbean. This was the first time it was hosted in the United States. It was a blast to cover, despite the not-so-desirable living arrangements and a touch-and-go work environment. I had a wonderful opportunity to really hone my craft. I wanted to share with you a video produced during a very short time span at the end of this competition, by unit member, broadcast journalist, Brad Staggs. Still shots used in this video were taken by myself and other Soldiers in our unit. It truly was a team effort.