I love those sort of stories. Here's two more:
In London there is (was?) a bus conductor who is (was?) equally famous. He
gave his passengers a total performance - singing, dancing, joking,... it
was a kind of street theatre.
In an American city, the transport engineers were worried about one
toll-collector on a particular bridge who always had a long queue, while
the traffic flowed freely through the neighbouring gates. You guessed it.
He was such a joy to deal with, with his Rock music and chat, that drivers
preferred to wait 5 minutes to give him their money than to drive straight
through the other gates.
Andy
At 11:28 PM 16/12/2003 -0500, you wrote:
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>Dear Philip, Eugene and all,
>Eugene's story about his grandmother reminded me of another story I often
>tell my students.
>In the 50s and the beginning of 60s urban automobile traffic in Belgrade
>was just beginning to "thicken". We did not have traffic light yet, so on
>some very busy intersection they had to place a traffic policeman (woman)
>to regulate the traffic. I don't know if anyone remembers what does that
>look like. The cop has white cloth "sleeves" over his/her arms (just the
>bottom part) and white gloves. He or she stands in the middle of the
>intersection with the arms extended on both sides in the direction of the
>road that is open. Then, s/he raises one arm to stop all the traffic,
>turns to face the other road and extend the arms to let the traffic flow
>that way. Occasionally, s/he points out to a particular car or a line of
>cars, and motions it to go in the desired direction. Basically, one can
>say, there are about 5 - 10 motions that the cop can perform. The usual
>shift for traffic cops in Belgrade was 4 hours.
>Can you imagine standing 4 hours in the middle of an intersection tuning
>this and that way, letting cars pass this and that way??
>So, there was this particular cop, let's call him John, who made this job
>into an art. He moved so graciously, with a smile, with his white gloves
>flashing this and that way, looking at every diver straight into their
>eyes, as if he was there personally just for them. He made it into a kind
>of a ballet dance. People used to come out on Sundays to either stand on
>the side walk and watch him or if they had a car, to drive through his
>intersection several times, just to have HIM let them personally through.
>John became a legend. People heard about him in other places, and when
>visiting Belgrade, asked their hosts to take them to see John!
>I saw him many times, as a child. Then and now I always wandered how a
>person can make the most repetitive, dull and difficult job into something
>that must be called art, something that becomes one's pride!! Not everyone
>can do that, and I think that this is something that is not taught any
>more. I think that in the times of pre industrial production, that quality
>was something that was socially cultivated (as in "grown") in people --
>this ability to perfect your own skill at whatever you do.
>
>Now I think that I illustrated what I think is the third way: I think that
>people can be happy if they develop a relationship toward their own
>work/job/life that can make it a meaningful activity. It can be something
>of a personal choice, or it can be a relationship developed out of
>necessity, after the fact that there is no choice. Just the ability to
>create an "art" out of whatever you do, regardless of everything else, is
>an activity of making your work and therefore yourself more meaningful.
>What do you think?
>Ana
>
>
>White, Phillip wrote:
>>
>>good monday morning, xmca-ers -
>>
>> Eugene wrote:
>>
>>I may sound as a conservative reactionary justifying misery of working class
>>people and preventing them from entering middle-class paradise of real
>>choices. But I'm not sure that it is a paradise and I'm aware of many
>>miseries of working class lives as I'm aware of something good that working
>>class has what is missing in middle class. I wonder if there is a "third
>>way".
>>
>>What do you think?
>>
>>
>> well, as it stands thus far, Eugene, i did like your story
>> about your Belarus grandmother, because it suggested that one's stance
>> towards life is much more complicated than a simple yes, no, like, don't
>> like, approach. reflecting back on my parents' lives, certainly a range
>> of cultural capital/resources provided for the richness is their
>> problem-solving approaches to life's vicissitudes.... as it seems was
>> the case for your grandmother - and certainly working class families
>> can be extremely rich in such resources - even is those resources are
>> not particularly noted by the middle and upper classes. but, i'm
>> atttempting to get to your "third way" question, and would like to
>> suggest that a possibility for some of the misery found in all peoples'
>> lives is not how they have found themselves within the social realities
>> that they face, but rather the multiplicity of cultural capital they
>> have to deal with the miseries of life that are there for everyone. so tha
>>t a third way might be found in ..... what? ...... social/cultural
>>tools within the emotional/perspective positionalities of life - rather
>>like when we describe particular people as being 'resilient."
>>
>>wat'cha think?
>>
>>phillip
>>
>>phillip white
>>school of education
>>university of colorado at denver
>>
>>
>
>--
>
>----------
>Ana Marjanovic-Shane
>267-334-2905 (cell)
>215-843-2909 (home)
>
>5e2509.gif
>
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