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 that 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)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jan 01 2004 - 01:00:09 PST