More than Meets the Eye…

“The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.” ~ John W. Gardner

It’s been 35 years since Chicagoan Studs Terkel published his groundbreaking book Working.  In it, Studs interviewed everyone from prostitutes to CEOs, housewives to artists, revealing what should have been obvious all along – people are more than the jobs they do.

Truck drivers read philosophy; physicists wait tables.  We simply can’t judge or dismiss any individual based on the tasks they perform…

This seems obvious, and most likely I’m preaching to the choir, but time and again, I’ve seen women in business suits treat sales people like servants, and groups of white shirted executives berate their servers.  I’ve heard students from impressive schools talk down to a grocery checker old enough to be their mother.  I’ve watched artsy types reject drinks from khaki-panted men.

Mark Twain said, “clothes make the man,” but he’s only right in so far as our judgment is concerned.  We pigeon-hole each other based on assumptions we make…

I know a lawyer who dresses like a rock star, and an actor who insists on wearing a three-piece suit.  My barista at Starbucks today is a professional dancer working for his insurance.  Bill Clinton once worked in a grocery store, Thomas Alva Edison in a railroad mail car.  Madeleine Albright sold bras; Warren Beatty was a rat catcher.  Ellen DeGeneres was an oyster shucker and Stephen King was a janitor.

We can all dress up or dress down; there are all kinds of reasons having nothing to do with IQ or talent for why we choose the work we do … and in today’s culture, it is a mistake to underestimate or write anyone off based on nothing more than appearance or occupation.

So much better to treat every individual we come across with the kindness and respect we would like to receive; even better to take the time to see the human being behind the apron, the hardhat, the uniform.  Who knows what we’ll learn?

“If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.”
~ Shakespeare, The Merchant Of Venice