Jobs, and What I Learned
Because rain has been falling since yesterday and is probably not going to stop until tomorrow, because it is too wet to run errands but too warm to hide under the covers, and because I have been practicing lyrics in my head until I can only speak in rhythm and rhyme, I am taking a ramble through the great English-style Garden of Blogs. This involves reading one, liking it, going to another recommended by the writer of the first, then following that one's path to yet another, etc., etc. There are no straight lines (those would be found in the French-style Formal Garden of Blogs).
I initially started my own blog to do a lot of self-promotion, but it turns out that there are lots of other things to write about. Inspired today by a few folks who have been writing about jobs they have held, I thought I might list a few of mine, and what I learned by doing them. Some were a long time ago. Some may start again tomorrow if things don't start to look up...
1. Babysitter. I learned that a lot of good church folks have very naughty books hidden in their bookcases behind the books on the top shelf. That was how I got to read Candy, Peyton Place, and The Sins of Philip Fleming, while drinking the 7-Up and munching the Cheetos that were standard babysitter fare in those days.
2. Discount-store cashier. Before there was Wal-Mart on the East Coast, there was Caldor's. I learned that, given half the chance, I can be a vengeful God. When products came through the checkout line without prices, and there was no one available to check prices, I made prices up. People who were kind and courteous to me got discounts. People who were mean and rude got markups. Mea culpa.
3. Apprentice herbalist. In which I learned that plants will talk to you, if you leave off your wristwatch, sit still, and listen.
4. Dog trainer. Dogs communicate primarily with body language, and they know exactly what they are saying. Humans are less clear. We think we communicate with words only, but there is a whole lot going on with human body language that we don't even know we are doing. This results in mixed messages with dogs and with each other, and until we calm down, sit still, watch, and listen (see plants, above), we are unlikely to be able to train our dogs, or to have world peace anytime soon, either. I also learned that, when using a client's dog to demonstrate a training technique in a class, don't pick the Chow. They can wag their tails, smile, and bite you all at the same time, like too many folks in show biz. You have been warned.
5. Assistant barn manager. OK, I started out just mucking stalls, which means, basically, shoveling shit (technical equestrian term). But I learned so much, because I was so highly motivated, having loved horses all my life, but not been able to spend any real time with them until I was in my 40s. I learned about noblesse oblige there, because there is no earthly reason horses should agree to be ridden, and yet, they allow it. About what it feels like to be prey, and therefore a little jumpy. About loving with all your heart, while still being a little detached, because if you form an attachment to someone else's horse, eventually, inevitably, there will be tears. And about being patient - yes, more being still, and watching, and listening.
There were other jobs, of course, but that will do for now. It is the stable job I miss most often, especially when I am in the thick of the least pleasant aspects of the music business. I know exactly why. In the barn, when there was shit to be shoveled, it was because there were actually horses, and very near.