Honorable Earning vs. Entitlement
![I was a student cafeteria worker and I loved it!](, <a href="https://clipartfest.com/download/eb4ce32146035c5b68d11320a0f830d48e70077d" title="Image from clipartfest.com"><img src="https://img.clipartfest.com/5a067d24cb2ec383d7b4f409007dd7f0_cafeteria-worker-female-cafeteria-worker-clipart_384-657.png" width="384" alt="cafeteria worker clipart" /></a>)
I was a student cafeteria worker and I loved it!
Mamacita says: When something, no matter what, is earned, that is honorable; whereas, getting something because one feels entitled, is not. Not honorable at all. Go ahead; bring it on. I’m standing my ground on this one.
When I was in school, I loved to hang around the teachers and other adults in the building, begging for jobs to do for them; anything was better than recess. I filed papers and graded spelling tests starting in second grade. (I spent much of first grade standing in the corner because of art class) (Another post, when I’ve recovered from it.)
In third grade, I stayed after school almost every night, cleaning desktops and grading papers and – remember this one? – clapping erasers out by the back fence. Sometimes I would be sent across the busiest street in our town to a little gas station to buy cartons of Big Red for my teacher.
Pop came in bottles. There were no cans back then. They were heavy. I felt so proud lugging two cartons of Big Red across that busy street to my teacher, after school.
The building was always full of men who asked me lots of questions, none of which I cared to answer because I was not a stupid little girl and I went in there to buy pop for my teacher so take my money thankyouverymuch seeya next week. I loved the responsibility, and kind of resented being reminded to look both ways, etc, because good grief, what kind of little kid doesn’t KNOW those things already?
I always envied the kids who got to clean tables and sweep and rinse trays in the cafeteria. In sixth grade, I was a cafeteria kid, and in return for free lunch got to be treated like a grown-up, with a grown-up job. The cafeteria ladies treated us like one of them, and expected – demanded- quality work, which I found exhilarating.
I was sent back to the classroom about fifteen minutes into the lesson, and my teacher always greeted me with a smile, asked me how it went that day, and set me to work. I felt so grown up.
I guess my point is, I never once thought of myself as a charity case. If I didn’t have the money, I bussed a few tables. There was never a stigma. I never felt picked on. I actually felt good about it because, as I said before, I hated recess and always felt more at home with the adults than with the other little kids.
I know not every little kid would have felt like I did, but I did, and that’s part of my educational story. (In fifth grade, some other kid got to do MY jobs and I’ve still not recovered from the shock.) But in sixth grade, I got it back. Whew.
Today, after going through the school system, and after undergrad and after Master’s and after thirty years of teaching, I still see no harm in a child being asked to wash a table in return for a sandwich. No child should be shamed – EVER – but there is no shame in earning. There is honor in earning.
Fictional Worlds That Are Better Than Ours
Mamacita says: Some things, I just can’t get enough of, and fictional worlds are one of mine. The real world as fiction in which evil is not tolerated and always defeated is one of my favorite things.
“Uh, Shakespeare in the park? Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?” Guess what mine is, tonight.
The real world needs this initiative. We need it more every day. I only wish. I’m supposedly grown up, and I still hope it happens.
“Make your move, reindeer games.”
We need heroes.
Sentient voters must step up and be Avengers today.
“You know, it really doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young, and beautiful, piece of ass.” Whoops, that wasn’t a hero. That was a villain. A real world piece of evil. A tantrum-throwing toddler placed in a seat of power, on purpose, by people who knew better but chose its opposite. ON PURPOSE.
Satan and the flying monkeys the undereducated voted into power.
” How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can’t hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill ’cause it’s fun. You have made me VERY desperate. You might not be glad that you did.”
Nick Fury said it best.
Thank you, Nick Fury. You summed up our situation perfectly. Our current resident evil and the flying monkeys under his spell cannot be tolerated. Even Captain America understands the analogy.
More Things I Haven’t Done Yet: Whiny Version
I haven’t done it yet, but I’ll get around to it. Right now, I’m just whiny.
Mamacita says: Here we go – a huge childish whine about more things I haven’t done yet. Some, I will eventually get around to, but others? When pigs fly. I am in a lot of pain tonight and more bills came in the mail today, so I am feeling pretty down. I do my fair share of whining, but mostly about silly or trivial things, like parking meters or drive-through lines or Trump. This is not a typical list for me. I apologize in advance.
- I haven’t recovered from the wreck yet. I still refer to the woman who disregarded her traffic light as the person who tried to murder me and my friend. I am ashamed of these thoughts but as of this moment I have not been able to forgive her. Sometimes I think I can and sometimes I think I have and then more bills come and even more bills come and something else hurts and I think about all the things I still can’t do and I get flashbacks to the wreck and I have nightmares about the crash and I know the recovery is far more than physical and I haven’t recovered yet.
2. I haven’t slept through the night since December 2. I don’t worry about this one because I learned to do it many years ago and they say it’s like riding a bicycle: you never forget how.
I did it then; I’ll eventually do it again.
3. I haven’t seen Beauty and the Beast or Fantastic Beasts yet but they’re sharing the Number One spot on my Movie Bucket List. The Beast List.
4. My attitude has not been something I’ve been proud of these past three months. I’m trying, really I am, but I am still broken, and I’m angry about it.
This is how my luck has been, lately. You’d be whiny, too.
5. I still haven’t replaced the washer and dryer. It’s hard to buy a big appliance without a paycheck. I won’t be replacing the TV in my home office any time soon, either. Same reason. Everything seems to break down at once. Sympathy pains, maybe.
6. I still haven’t thanked all of you wonderful people for your loving support. You mean the world to me. I don’t deserve you right now, but I’m hoping to get better. This person is not me. This person is not who I ever wanted to be. I want myself back. It will happen.
7. I haven’t been “me” for months. What I’ve been isn’t anyone I’m proud of. Please be patient with me.
8. I miss my students and colleagues at the college. I will never NOT miss them. I hope to go back this summer, and get back in the swing of teaching and being taught. It’s not just the students who learn in a classroom, you know. Interacting with and listening to students over these past years has taught me more than any undergrad or graduate class ever did. There’s no way they could have. To learn how to do this right, one has to jump in with both feet and listen. On a related note, I have never NOT shown my students how to blow things up for the past eight years. I will be enthusiastic to the max when I’m back in the classroom. Put your hands over your ears. Fair warning. I love my job.
9. I have never liked chili. Mom used to fix it for us and I didn’t like it then and I like it even less now. Most people like chili. I wish I did; it’s fun to make and it smells wonderful, but I just don’t like it.
10. My dad’s favorite meal was beans and cornbread. I hated it. Still hate it. When I came home from school and the house smelled like beans and cornbread, my heart would actually sink. Mom made this meal for him at least twice a week; he loved it that much. Sometimes brown beans, sometimes white beans, always horrible. A few times in my life I have seen people ordering beans and cornbread in a restaurant. What a waste of an outing.
