A recent conversation with a very, very close person in my life (from and living in Midwest for full disclosure) left me a little bruised. Definitively I was told that because I live "inside the beltway" I no longer understand what it means to be living in the Midwest or how people in the Midwest "are."
So all those times when I flinch during the campaign cycle when politicians say "he's a Washington Insider" which is code for an evil, disenfranchised, out-of-touch individual are now being applied to me. My zip code makes me a member of the "ruling class." Seriously, I'm not making this up.
Really? Wow, last time I checked I was still trying to figure out how to save up enough to buy house, cut my grocery and gas budget, cook better meals at home, and scrape together enough for a vacation if there's anything left over. How is that exactly out of touch with the rest of the country?
Furthermore, I was informed that people make a choice. You either do well or do good, but you can't do both.
Metaphorically staggering backwards, I recover enough to sputter, I'm sorry what part of working for a college and my spouse being an AID contractor scream doing well in your terms? Are we far more fortunate than many people really struggling to make the bills on a daily basis, absolutely. But have I sold out and started doing PR for people who club baby seals, melt the ice caps and want to build condos in Antarctica? Um, no.
I respectfully disagree on so many levels.
When the discussion devolves into you don't understand me because you live in Washington, I fear there's no conversation left to have... sigh.
I find it hard to believe that many people have a clear choice between doing "good" and doing "well". Pretty sure most everyone is doing "best they can".
ReplyDeleteEven if you were working in PR and Nate was at a law firm, you'd still be doing the best you could for that situation...that's all you can ask of yourself. What anyone else asks of you (saddening or frustrating as it may be) doesn't really matter.