Coastline Pilot

1 August, 2003

 

Chasing the Muse

By Catharine Cooper 

 

How much, really, do we know of one another?  

 

In my neighborhood, we wave, smile and ask the obligatory, “How’re you doing?”   Wayne and Faye walk their new dog.  Ann, racquet in hand, takes off with Helga for the tennis courts.  Byron jumps in his sedan and heads to the city.  Randy dons his uniform and lends his hands to Laguna’s Public Works Department.  Paul transforms paper and canvas into art.  I know of our comings and goings, and the type of job each of us undertakes, but I know little of what constitutes the daily bump and grind.

 

This thought began to percolate after a recent luncheon with Senator Bob Graham of Florida.  The Senator was asked to speak about how he spends his days, and his answer was quite illuminating. 

 

Graham was a member of the Florida State Senate in 1974, when a female educator, who said he knew nothing of the difficulties within the school system, challenged him to spend time in the classroom.  He agreed.  She called back a few days later to let him know everything was arranged, that the following week he would be teaching 12th grade civics.  He had expected to spend a few hours, not a semester, but as an honorable man, he embraced his commitment.  

 

Senator Graham learned more about the educational system by being on the inside than he could ever have learned from the outside, and took on the task of repeatedly working a new job.  Through his tenure as state senator, his 8 years as the Governor of Florida, and his current role as a US Senator, he has completed 386 “workdays”.  His jobs have included service as a policeman, railroad engineer, construction worker, fisherman, garbage man, factory worker, busboy, and baggage handler.  As a public servant, Senator Graham has taken the time to know his constituency. 

 

My grandmother always lectured, not to criticize a man unless I had walked in his shoes.  I usually quipped back, that I’d never fit in his shoes, but as I grew to an adult, her point began to make more sense. 

 

When my neighbor, Faye, leaves for work, what sort of day can she expect?  Are her co-workers considerate and courteous?  Is her boss respectful?  Is she provided sufficient resources to successfully complete each task?  Does she have an intolerable commute?  We never speak of these things as we wave from our decks or our car windows, but they are part of the fabric of her life. 

 

Although we cannot walk in another’s shoes, sometimes getting up close and personal can suffice.  Workdays changed the way Senator Graham perceived those that he governed, and his stories reminded me to question and revisit judgments I might hold.

 

Each time I assume I know what someone is going through, I’d better check my homework.  In truth, I have is a set of assumptions and generalizations that color my thinking.   I can declare someone is unmotivated if they don’t have a job, but is this necessarily the truth?  I fill in the blanks with my own pieces of experience, but quite frankly, these are molded by a middle class upbringing in this wonderful beach community.

 

When I want to label someone lazy, I had better ask, “Am I?”  When I want to scream at someone to “try harder,” I’d better examine what is hard enough.  I’d better try on that other pair of shoes through a process of querying, without judgment, so that I might better understand my world and my place within it.  And I’d better find out if my husband Steve really likes tofu, or if he just says that to please me.

 

—xx—

 

Catharine Cooper sits on the City’s Open Space Committee. She can be reached at ccooper@cooperdesign.net or 949 497 5081.