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CLASS I: (the topic is Work)
PROFESSOR: Lets talk about this thing we call work.
What is it good for?
STUDENT: Absolutely nothing.
STUDENT: We work to get money.
STUDENT: Work for paper.
PROFESSOR: I guess paper being money.
STUDENT: To get away from the house.
PROFESSOR: So you work to get out of the house, boredom.
STUDENT: To meet new people.
STUDENT: Success.
PROFESSOR: What else?
STUDENT: Prestige.
PROFESSOR: What else? What is work good for? Somebody
said because they actually enjoy it.
STUDENT: Stress.
STUDENT: To make things so we can live off of.
PROFESSOR: For survival.
STUDENT: You have to work to live.
PROFESSOR: Work to live and live for work.
STUDENT: Most people die 8 years after they retire.
PROFESSOR: Why do you think that is?
STUDENT: Because they don't have a purpose in life.
STUDENT: Challenge.
STUDENT: Stay
healthy.
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STUDENT: To promote thinking.
STUDENT: Pay Bills.
PROFESSOR: What do you have to pay for?
STUDENT: Bills, car, hobbies.
PROFESSOR: Food, utilities entertainment. What's the
difference between a hobby and work?
STUDENT: It's usually for fun.
PROFESSOR: So for fun. You don't get paid. Golf is an
expensive hobby.
STUDENT: Some play sports and get paid for it.
PROFESSOR: So hobby is fun, you don't necessarily get
paid. If you call it a hobby you don't get paid. You have
your other job or your other work you do. Hobby usually
doesn't involve the exchange of commodities and this is
what we enjoy doing. Would it be fair to say that you are
not forced into it?
STUDENT: Right.
PROFESSOR: Is there a purpose to a hobby? Does there
have to be a purpose to a hobby?
STUDENT: No as long as it makes you happy.
STUDENT: It helps you relax.
PROFESSOR: Okay. Usually no pressure in a hobby and if
will is it's temporary and you can leave it. Do you need
breaks from your hobby.
STUDENT: Yeah.
PROFESSOR: What kind of hobby needs a break?
STUDENT: Reading, cross stitch.
STUDENT: Building model trains.
PROFESSOR: Yeah because you have to glue. Okay. So how
do you know you're working and not playing?
STUDENT: Because it wears you out.
PROFESSOR: Work wears you out.
STUDENT: Basketball wears you out too.
PROFESSOR: What's the difference between a basketball
work out and a work work out.
STUDENT: Burn out.
STUDENT: Your boss starts getting on your butt.
STUDENT: When I go to work it's my relaxing time. I
have to do things when I'm there but if I wanted I could
quit. It's relaxing because it's away from everything
that's really hectic in my life like children or family.
PROFESSOR: So for you your work is an escape.
STUDENT: To me work is more what I do at home than when
I actually go to my workplace.
PROFESSOR: So this for you because it's less stressful,
less demanding?
STUDENT: Right because a lot of things I'm doing at home
now is new and it's different. It's not a headache but
it's more work than actually going to work.
PROFESSOR: So
when we say the word job we usually refer
to something that is repetitive. You do the same thing
over and over in your job. So why do you think most people
will tell you, on average, that they do not look forward to
reporting to work on Monday morning?
STUDENT: Because it's Monday morning.
STUDENT: Because it's the same ol' thing.
STUDENT: Somebody's going to tell you what to do.
PROFESSOR: There are different kinds of managers. There
are managers that are able to entrust you to do your work
and others who trust you. So there is an authority figure,
it's repetitive. Couldn't this be said for baseball,
fishing, football?
STUDENT: It doesn't make you happy.
PROFESSOR: What makes you happy?
STUDENT: You're doing it at your own will.
PROFESSOR: So hobbies is want to do and job is have to
do.
STUDENT: You don't have to work.
PROFESSOR: You don't?
STUDENT: Some people get on welfare and they don't work.
STUDENT: I would if I could.
STUDENT: You're the reason why I hate welfare.
PROFESSOR: What does lazy mean?
STUDENT: Bum.
STUDENT: Moocher.
STUDENT: People on welfare with no intention of getting
a job.
STUDENT: People standing on the corner with a sign.
They have no intention of getting a job, no ambition.
STUDENT: What if a paraplegic is on welfare.
PROFESSOR: Is that different?
STUDENT: Yeah. Because they can't do a physical job.
STUDENT: They can be a Wal-Mart greeter.
STUDENT: What if you have no arms and no legs?
STUDENT: Steven haw kins has none, he's crippled and
he's a Physics genious.
STUDENT: Beethoven was deaf.
PROFESSOR: We have a fascination with the term
handicapped or differently abled. Ultimately the question
is, and this happens with people who have physical, things
that are readily apparent, there are still how are you
going to be readily productive. One Guy can barely move
his head and he's in class. I have students who say they
can't come to class because they slept late. Physical
doesn't have much to do with it in that case. There are
students in here who are definitely differently mentally
abled. You may be physically present but maybe only 20 to
30 percent mentally present. You know there are professors
who will teach their classes and you can find their notes
from 30 years ago and you can find
their notes. They are
repetitive. We call them widget jobs. You'd think that
would possibly be a good thing. If you don't have to think
about it, you know, like the assembly line. I make sure
this particular widget is in this position over and over.
In the beginning of industrial America and the assembly
line invented by Henry Ford and somebody else but Henry
Ford took all the credit because he made all the money for
it but do you know how much they paid them people to work
in the factories. Like 5 bucks an hour. Why did they have
to pay them so much money?
STUDENT: Boring.
PROFESSOR: Right.
PROFESSOR: The Mo not any of it made it dangerous. Keep
the job interesting or people will lose limbs.
STUDENT: It can be fun.
PROFESSOR: It can but if I say we're going to work today
you're like oh God. If I say we're going to do something
that counts for nothing then you all relax but then you're
like why even do it.
STUDENT: It depends on perception. Dude, there is a lot
of people who will come and be like my God we got to go to
this class. I hate my classes but I like school after I
come to this class. You make me get into it. I like
Dr. Hall but it's boring. It's just certain things. My
history teacher is just like that
example. He's monotone
and he's like the American revolution, we're going to study
the American revolution. You walk in and throw a quiz and
a meditation, you're out and it's like --
PROFESSOR: I'm lazy.
STUDENT: No.
PROFESSOR: Why did I leave the classroom.
STUDENT: You went to get books.
PROFESSOR: No I went to hang out. No I learned at this
place if the teacher is in the room you guys are waiting
for the teacher to say something. You're not focusing on
what you're doing. If I leave you're like we can be real
people. As long as the authority is in the room you're
nervous. You would think being repetitive would make you
comfortable. In the army if you know how to put your M 16
together in the dark then you have confidence. Ironically,
however -- what happens with our work, you go to the same
job, wear the same uniform, think about uniforms on a job,
anybody can wear it. That's why they have casual day now.
Administration comes in their jeans one day a week.
They're finding also what's happening in Seattle,
California area, because a lot of lawyers are representing
dot com, that the lawyers are trying to be like them so
they don't look like a stiff. What they're finding out is
that the productivity seems to be going down for those
lawyers. What they think
productivity is may be 100
Billable hours. It's like in the NFL you can make a lot of
money for 3 or 4 years but after that your body is gone.
you have athletes and that's basically playing a kid's
game. A journalist said lets never forget when a person
hits a home run that they're playing a kid's game.
STUDENT: It's a different level.
PROFESSOR: Why?
STUDENT: Because there is bucks.
PROFESSOR: Mega bucks.
STUDENT: It's a job.
PROFESSOR: What is their job?
PROFESSOR: It's entertainment. In chariots of fire they
talk about the hundred yard dash. The runners and cuss
toad y'all workers were talking about it --
STUDENT: I don't think the olympics is like the same as
a paid baseball player. A friend of mine just trained for
the olympics and she's putting a lot on hold to do it and
it's not really that Profitable so I don't think that's the
same as playing baseball for millions of dollars.
PROFESSOR: If you've ever seen the movie field of dreams
you used to not get paid for playing football or baseball.
In 1985 when Andre Agassi came out in tennis, Jimmy
Connors, superstar American, said the reason why Agassi
could not win a major tournament even though he was a
talented player, was because Nike
paid him millions and
millions of dollars where it took Jimmy Connors winning
several tournaments, several years to make the millions.
People playing something for fun and they turn it in to an
escape. Look at the ones on drugs. We go gee, that's a
real shame but then we want them to play. Okay, a Guy who
chokes a coach, you're willing to forget that because man
they can really hit the ball or do the hoop or do a
rebound. Dennis Rodman --
STUDENT: I hate him.
PROFESSOR: How do you know him.
STUDENT: You just excused an action that you say is
wrong.
STUDENT: I that's why I'm not an M B A sponsor. I think
if that coach would have pushed me I would have done the
same thing because he's human. Whether he should be
sponsored is another thing.
PROFESSOR: Rodman is more of an image -- he's a good
player but people paid attention to the image.
STUDENT: I don't like him because when he played with
the pistons where was the hair and all of that. When he
got with the bulls he had to do all of that because he was
on a team where he had to be more because it had Michael
Jordan and Scotty Pippin.
STUDENT: He was competing for attention.
PROFESSOR: So
money isn't enough.
STUDENT: Exactly.
PROFESSOR: So why do you think in your 4 or 5 or 6
figure job, that some how if I had more money life would be
better? So maybe it's not about money. If you're not a
liberal when you're young you have no heart and if you're a
conservative when you're older and you have a job and money
and family then you have no brain. Isn't that the saying.
So what does this money really mean to us?
STUDENT: It means a better house because years ago when
I was married we started off dirt poor. Maybe together we
were making 18 thousand dollars. As my husband advanced in
his job we had a nice salary and then it was always
something else that we needed, boat or whatever. There was
always something we needed. When I got divorced and went
back down to nothing I realized I was happier.
STUDENT: When Michael Jordan came back for the second
time somebody said he came back for the money. He came
back because he loved basketball. He had the money anyway
before that. He was the last great player. Basketball
sucks now.
PROFESSOR: When we talk about work we end up talking
about the heroes of work. If you want to talk about
Jordan, if you read his book, he talks about the work
ethic. There is a reason why we have the gross domestic-we
have and crime and all of that.
But Michael Jordan did
something that through this he was able to achieve. That
is he flew. We were talking about the olympics.
Individuals were talking about why they watched the
olympics and it was because it showed them what was
possible in human potential. So then you say why do people
focus on Martin Luther King, mal come X, mother Teresa,
James Carville and all of that that seems to just break the
rules. They do something no one else apparently thinks
they can do. Roger banister was supposed to be the hope in
the 1900 olympics for the 400 meter run. He failed, he
lost, screwed up bad. The only way he felt he could redeem
himself was the 4 minute mile. He was told, everybody was
told, by sin tis, Doctors, physicians, that the human being
could not break the 4 minute mile because physically it was
impossible and if you tried your heart would explode out of
your chest. Banister in the olympics trying to redeem
himself, trying to break this record, thinking his heart is
going to explode out of his chest. Maybe he said to
himself maybe not. People who saw it said it was like
seeing time stopped. He Broca barrier that had never been
broken before and then after that 16 people broke it. What
was Roger banister's work? What was Michael Jordan's work?
Pushed limits, broke limits, showed potential in the heart
soul body.
STUDENT: Military
does that.
STUDENT: Your mind sets physical limits on your body.
PROFESSOR: When you think about the fact that according
to psychologist, 10 percent of your brain is all that you
use. If your car can only use 10 percent of gas that you
put into it how cheated would you feel? That's what we do
with our brains everyday an our minds everyday, especially
when we get into the rut. Then somebody comes out like
Bill Gates and says lets do this and makes all this money,
Ray Crock, he's the guy who put MacDonald's together.
Before that there was no such thing as fast food. After he
did this he said I'm going to put it all over America and
people said you can't do it because people won't sit just
for a little while and leave. Maybe it was prediction or
maybe he saw where the economy was going. If you have a
machine job then this made perfect sense. Then there is
Sam Walton. People will never go into a cynder block
building and buy eggs and hose in the same place. Here is
something you're going to do some day if you have not
already, a resume' and interview. What is your purpose
when doing this?
STUDENT: To get a job.
PROFESSOR: You sell yourself. You make yourself into a
commodity. Am I a good investment? Okay this is the rules
I have to go through to get the job. Once I get the job
then this is just the past.
It doesn't define my future.
Most people, especially when they graduate from a college,
like in my day you had your education and maybe a job.
That was your resume'. How confident did you feel? A
resume' is supposed to be extensive, right? All I did was
survive 4 years of college and I had worked as an intern
somewhere. These were my responsibilities. If I define
myself that way, I'm scared. A person can look at this and
say, like if there is a lot, they can look and say he's got
a lot of experience in the old stuff but not the new
technology. You think you're somebody because you have a
lot of things after your name. The 3 most important --
okay. You're at a party and somebody asks you what do you
do? What do you answer?
STUDENT: Oh nothing.
PROFESSOR: Right.
STUDENT: Go to school.
PROFESSOR: I'm a student. Now when you have a job what
do you think you're going to answer? Right. I'm an
engineers, I work for Dow chemical, I'm a CPA. When you're
a student the next question is what's your major. Why is
that the natural next question? This is why you're in
school. They don't ask you if you're getting a lot out of
that.
STUDENT: Do you enjoy it?
PROFESSOR: Are
you learning anything? They ask you what
your major is? What track? Which track are you on?
STUDENT: Transfer.
PROFESSOR: Okay. You're going to take a few questions
and then transfer. What are the majors people won't give
you flack over?
STUDENT: Psychology.
STUDENT: Pre law.
PROFESSOR: Pre med, pre dental, physical therapy.
STUDENT: Business.
STUDENT: Education. If you say education in Louisiana
though --
PROFESSOR: People say when are you leaving? Usually
this translates into teacher, this education.
STUDENT: I know a Guy who just graduated from a major
University and has a degree to be some kind of scientist, a
big time scientist and the only job he's going to be able
to do is a teacher because twl is not that many jobs
available for that field. So really a lot of things you'll
do, you'll just be a teacher.
PROFESSOR: If you extend the definition of teacher,
every job you do be it house wife, husband is a teacher.
STUDENT: I'm talking a about a school, teacher type
situation.
PROFESSOR: Where are the ones that give you a quizzical
look like what the hell are you
doing?
STUDENT: Music.
STUDENT: Culinary arts.
STUDENT: I'm going to Paris to study.
PROFESSOR: English. These over here you've got a
career. Psychology you're a psychologist, pre law, you're
a lawyer and so on. If you lock yourself into this stuff
over here, music --
STUDENT: They look at you crazy if you're going to be an
interpreter.
PROFESSOR: What are you doing it for then? Why are you
wasting money. General studies, oh great. Liberal arts.
First of all, the word liberal get as bad rap. Will is a
program here, Discover, and it will give you a list of
thousands and thousands of jobs. At what point do you have
to stop and say you've got a serious profession in mind for
your life? If somebody says what do you want to be? I
want to be an astronaut, a Pokemon trainer, whatever. You
can say anything. Then at what point does that not
suffice? At what age are you not allowed to say I want to
be an astronaut anymore? You start school around the age
of 5 and then it ends up here when you get a job. We go
through elementary, middle, high school, higher education
in college and then maybe post graduate or graduate work
and then supposedly you get into your real world.
Elementary school through middle
school you have a thing
you call recess. That's okay. You have that worked into
your day. In high school they call that the break or
lunch. Now you have your lunch break. You have to figure
out how to have fun in that one hour or whatever. College,
we don't do that anymore. We say had is when your classes
are and the rest is up to you. Then you supposedly you get
your job and you get a 15 minute break, lunch break,
another 15 minute break. You work 5 or 6 days a week,
maybe 2 weeks off vacation a year. Some jobs get holidays.
You do this for average of 45, 50, 55 years. Statistics
have shown that most people will go through 3 major career
changes in life. I'm 36 and I've had 4 different jobs.
STUDENT: You mean real jobs.
PROFESSOR: Yeah, real jobs. So you're going to do that
for 45, 50, 55 years. What are you going to get out of it?
STUDENT: 401 K.
PROFESSOR: Right. You work so you can retire. You're
working so you don't have to work. You're going to spend,
40, 60, 80 hours a week working at something you're looking
to not work at. You're sleeping 6 to 8 hours a day, night,
possibly, most of you not real. Really.
STUDENT: 12, 13.
PROFESSOR: Average is 6 a night. We're not getting
enough sleep, we're productive as hell supposedly, economy
is booming and we're so stressed
out. The one thing people
wants more than money is time. That's what surveys say.
Time to have meaningful exchanges in their lives which
means they're not have meaningful exchanges in their job.
They work, they can be productive, make money at it and
it's not meaningful.
STUDENT: I don't feel that way.
PROFESSOR: Of course not but that's the way you look at
your job.
STUDENT: My actual job where I go when I get paid, I do
have meaningful exchanges and I enjoy it.
PROFESSOR: Congratulations.
STUDENT: I'm sure many people do.
STUDENT: Where do you work?
STUDENT: In a restaurant.
STUDENT: And you're happy.
STUDENT: Yeah. I make plenty of money doing it and I'm
happy.
PROFESSOR: I like my job, obviously.
STUDENT: Do you think happiness can be determined on
whether or not you get a job paid by the hour or salary --
if you're getting paid by salary or paid by the hour, which
is better?
PROFESSOR: It depends on the person. We look at
custodial workers and we feel really bad and in some ways
they're more free than Bill Gates
will ever be. If a
person likes to be outdoors, don't put him in a desk job.
The problem is that most people never answer questions
about who they are and what they want in life. You spend
most of your time looking for the major career track.
you've been guided into certain directions. The question
is what do you really want to do
with your life.
What I'm going to ask you to do for Tuesday
is take the meditation you did and expand it and
solidify it and tell me what do you want your life's
effort to finally mean on your
death bed.
CLASS II: (WORK II)
PROFESSOR: What was your assignment for today?
STUDENT: 85 years old, on your death bed, 5 minutes to
live.
PROFESSOR: That's right.
STUDENT: I misunderstood. I thought it was to think about
that and consider it in with your essay.
PROFESSOR: Okay. I had something in mind but then I got
thrown. Let me just start some stuff here and see where it
takes us. For lack of a better distinction, I think we can
talk about there being kind of an outer versus an inner
world. We have our thoughts about things and then
interactions with other people. Did I have y'all talk
about what the world's biggest problems were?
STUDENT: No.
PROFESSOR: Okay. We'll start with that. What do you
think are the world's biggest problems in terms of this
outer world? Write that and we'll start from there. What
do you think are the biggest problems facing the world
today? Pollution? AIDS? what are some of the world's
problems?
STUDENT: Crime.
STUDENT: Money.
STUDENT: Hate.
PROFESSOR: Money
is a problem?
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STUDENT: Money creates problems.
PROFESSOR: Okay.
STUDENT: Greed, slauth, envy, pride.
STUDENT: Government.
STUDENT: Loss of respect.
STUDENT: Communication barrier.
STUDENT: Fighting for religion.
STUDENT: Racism.
PROFESSOR: And we can add any other ism to that.
STUDENT: People not minding their own business.
PROFESSOR: Anything else?
STUDENT: Being closed minded.
PROFESSOR: What do you mean by that?
STUDENT: By not opening the options of looking at
something different ways. You may say you don't like BRCC
because you don't like it. That's not really saying why
you don't like it but if you say you don't like how small
this classroom is but it count be small to me because it
accommodating a lot of people.
PROFESSOR: So making a decision without accepting all
the facts.
PROFESSOR: What's the difference between conviction and
stubbornness?
STUDENT: Conviction is you really believe it and
stubborn it's kind of out of annoyance.
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PROFESSOR: So stubborn is someone who knows what they're
believing is not true. Can you be wrong and be convicted?
STUDENT: Yes.
PROFESSOR: Aren't you being closed minded?
PROFESSOR: So what is open minded?
STUDENT: Anything is possible. You consider all the
options and then after you consider all the options then
you pick the one that you think best applies to the
situation as it is.
PROFESSOR: So you're going to have to be open at a
certain point and then you're going to have to be closed
because when you make a decision you close all the doors
but one. Would it be proper to say it's really being aware
of what is happening and letting it flow?
STUDENT: Right.
PROFESSOR: So humans, they're involved with individuals
on how they view themselves --
STUDENT: And their beliefs.
PROFESSOR: If we have a disagreement, is it against your
basic structure like my liver and your spleen?
STUDENT: No. Questions beliefs. I refuse to accept the
possibility to believe what you believe.
STUDENT: I don't thing everything has to be a
disagreement.
PROFESSOR: No
but if this person has a belief
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structure -- for example, how can 2 people believe in the
same God, the Israelis and the muslims, they share the same
religious traditions. They refer to Jesus, they believe
that Moses and Abraham and Jesus were all prophets that
served the same God. They're out there right now giving
each other in the name of that God because God's on my
side, not yours. What we're talking about is not I like
green and you like blue. What we're talking about is
serious belief structures like capitalist, communist.
We're willing to let anything happen to the Russian people
as long they were not capitalist. So when I have a belief
structure and you have a belief structure and we're equally
conviced, why do we fight? Sometimes we don't because
sometimes we don't care. When do we fight?
STUDENT: When someone tries to impose that upon us without
us saying lets agree to disagree.
PROFESSOR: Sure. Have you ever been in a discussion
with somebody and you know what you should do but the
person says you should do this but you don't want to do it
now because they said it. So we love to resist the idea of
authority when it comes straight to our face. If this
belief structure and this belief structure are at war and
this one is trying to impose and this one is resisting, on
what basis is this one resisting? If this person believes
and then tries to impose the belief
structure over here and
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this person resist, on what basis to they resist?? They
have them established. Where do they come from? The
culture and system this person grew up in. So what's
really at war?
STUDENT: Like what they have been told before them and
they've been taught to stand up for their beliefs so that
across what's really at hand.
PROFESSOR: Right now if you had been born in another
culture, say even in Europe, your beliefs about the world
would be completely different than they are now. One way
very specific is you'd look at a map and you would expect
to see your country in the center as opposed to the old U S
A, red White and blue. In some cultures, if you do not
burp big after eating then they're insulted. In their
cultures, if you like the food you burp. In Japanese
cultures you do not give eye contact. In our culture you
have a 3 foot space we call personal space. Do not get in
that space unless I have accepted you in that space. Now
all of these are culturations. When does our weekend
occur? Saturday and Sunday. In sawdy Arabia it's Thursday
Friday. Our on is their dot. Their 0 is our 5.
STUDENT: That's like us arguing with them about that.
PROFESSOR: Right. We're in the year 2000 according to A
D, in the year of our Lord. In Islam it is like a 575,
it's from the death of Muhammad,
the day they started the
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calendar. what's amazing about this to me is this is a
culture you're born into and when you are 3 to 5, having
the brain capacity of memory, you ear living in a system
that says this is how reality is. Before you have the
ability to make a choice -- when memory starts you have a
choice. That's a proposition. When memory starts you have
a choice because then you use memory to judge. Last time
this didn't work, this time I got burned and that time
this. You start creating the choices of your own. I'm
guessing, and I'm not sure, it's kind of weird, a paradox
for me at least, there seems to be, even though you've been
inundated with that culture, there still seems to be
something within us that says yes or no. Something that
says my culture comes complete with a moral code. When you
go in the army first thing they do is break you down. They
try to build you up so you're not afraid of anything. They
try to give you a way of responding in all situations,
ideally. After that they also give you the uniform, you
stay together, you're a team, a group and you have a code
which is you always stick by your wing man. That's kind of
the top gun version of it. You always stick with your team
and do the best for your team. Yet even within that you
can say no. You can stop. You can do something foolish.
I doubt, it is very doubtful that we do things that are
wrong, quote unquote, without what
we know we are doing is
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wrong. So what we have then is, and this is the only way
I've been able to look at it, we have something in terms of
our inner and outer dynamic. We have the program that
tells us this is what we're supposed to do and then we have
the small voice or conscience and for some it's religion
that allows us to transcend the program. If we couldn't
then we couldn't make mistakes because we would all do what
we were supposed to do. What allows you to some how not do
the program? What was there a Florence Nightingale, why
was there a Martin Luther King? You can't go tend to the
sick out in the field. How is it that individuals came to
believe, or Rosa Parks, growing up in a culture that says
you a second class citizen. You sit in the back of the
bus. How is it a person says no, today I think I'm going
to sit in the front and you can't make me move. There is
something here going on that allowed her to believe that
she just wasn't what we are society what her society
thought she was. What is work? Everything that is work
from the CEO of microsoft to being a parent to being a
child, student or a teacher, it's all about trying to
figure out the way through this thing called life. We try
to Wade our way through and make decisions about them.
What are the problem that is our society faces? If we
actually worked on them and dealt with them that we could
actually get somewhere with our
society?
8
STUDENT: Accept the fact that there are problems.
PROFESSOR: So to accept that there is a problem and to
finally look at it. For example, education, you know in
this state dead last, or next to Mississippi, dead last in
terms of education. How people are defining that, that
depends on the certain test and even here on our placement
test there were questions about whether it should be used
because it was unfair to certain groups. What is fair? In
this nation or in this state we say oh my God education is
a problem, there is violence in the schools, everything is
going to hell in a hand basket, oh my God the sky is
falling. Oh my God the sky is falling. Lets do something.
No you don't understand, it's really bad. Students don't
respect anything. They say okay, yes, ma'am, yes, sir will
fix it. If we can go, in 9 years time, figuring out a
transistor watch to putting a man on the moon. Transistor
watches was beyond NASA. It was bodacious. It was bold.
What was even boulder is some people went to work on it.
In 9 years they put somebody on the moon. If it did
happen, they did that in 9 years from nothing to putting
something on the moon. Do you think if we really cared
about education that anybody could stop us? Obviously we
don't care about education because nothing is happening.
At a certain point that is a good thing because obviously
it goes on. We want it.
9
PROFESSOR: Violence. This is a proposition. Ultimately
I think every problem the world has has to do with the idea
of violence. Here is a person who is threatened by some
action, activity or virus that is supposedly going to
destroy this person. So this person feeling threatened
does what? Strikes out whatever she thinks is a threat.
If you want to go further the source is fear. Have you
ever been angry with someone or hurtful with someone when
they gave you a really nice present? I hate you. I'm
going to beat you up. People will say that, right, because
that vulnerability thing. Essentially if we're in a good
mood -- you saw when I walked in here today I was a little
unsettled. I walked in and you guys go oh shoot he's here.
It's what you're saying. What you're saying to me, at
least my perception, because I was unsettled, was you
didn't want me here.
STUDENT: We're coming from you are 13 minutes late, you
had 2 and a half minutes left and we could be outside
smoking.
PROFESSOR: Right. If I am totally and complete in
myself and I'm okay with myself then there is nothing you
can do that can mess with me. I say okay fine. If I'm
unsettled and I feel threatened then immediately it's okay
I'm the authority figure, screw with me and I kill you.
You saw it in action. When
you start to bite somebody
10
else, it's probably when you are like this about something
or somebody. Have you ever noticed -- some people can
actually, and it's an amazing thing, be upset with this
person over here and walk over here and be okay with this
person. That's amazing because I think you bring it from
here to here.
STUDENT: That just causes problems with that person.
PROFESSOR: That's a wonderful thing.
STUDENT: You should be pissed at the whole situation.
PROFESSOR: I think it might be a Guy thing. I'm glad to
see that there are more people than I thought out there
that are able to do that.
STUDENT: Most of the times people don't really get that
angry.
PROFESSOR: Or it comes later you mean?
STUDENT: Lack of concern.
STUDENT: Like me, you piss me off and 2 minutes later I'm
just like screw it. Other people take it personally.
STUDENT: It all depends on your attitude.
PROFESSOR: What is being threatened when you're afraid?
Your belief that some how you have a need that somebody
else is in control of. So then we end up with this idea
that life is about gaining and losing. What's your job in
life?
STUDENT: To gain.
11
PROFESSOR: To gain. So then your job, your work, then
becomes focused on this gain and really equally focused on
losing. If you're always focused on losing or there is a
need or missing piece, can you gain enough to make sense
out of that?
STUDENT: No.
PROFESSOR: The things we think will make us happy like
money, intimacy, called love or sex, power, all of these
ultimately will not satisfy. You can fill your life with
people and you can be in crowds of rooms and be honored and
glorified --
STUDENT: But you're still going to be lonely.
PROFESSOR: There is a poem called person in the mirror.
That's the one you can't fool. So here is the interesting
thing. If we're focused on this model, this is our belief
about work that we've been given in this culture and it's
in the Indian culture and European certainly and I have to
do more research on other cultures, but the Japanese have
this -- here is how stupid Japan was in World War II. You
import all your steel that makes all your weapons, from the
allies that you're fighting. Can you say stupid? They
figured they were the master race. Children of the sun is
what they were called but they were about gaining. This is
what we try to do. You try to cover yourself with whatever
you can, more and more stuff as
a way to keep from losing.
12
STUDENT: If you have nothing then all you have is
opportunity to gain.
PROFESSOR: Okay. If you have nothing --
STUDENT: It can get worse.
STUDENT: Depends on what you call nothing.
STUDENT: No shoes, no clothes, buck naked living in a
cardboard box.
PROFESSOR: Lets just consider the fact that possibly,
and I want you to write about this right now. Say there is
nothing to gain in work. Nothing to gain because
ultimately you die and you can't take any of it with you.
So ultimately there is nothing to gain and ultimately there
is nothing to lose. Now if we take these away and we just,
for a moment, add something to the program that this is
possible and real, now what motivation is left to work?
Just write. I want you to think about this. There is
nothing to gain and nothing to lose so what's left?
Obviously there is something left because you're still
here.
PROFESSOR: So did y'all come up with anything?
STUDENT: Yeah, self.
STUDENT: Actually there is more -- this is what I came
up with. There is more than one way to skin a rabbit,
right? If you have nothing to gain, at a certain point,
you have nothing to lose at a certain
point then you can
13
try a different approach maybe. Maybe this one thing seems
to be stopping you then try something different. With
trying comes failure.
PROFESSOR: There is nothing to lose.
STUDENT: The human drive to be better.
PROFESSOR: Better than what?
STUDENT: Better than what we were.
PROFESSOR: We can break the 4 minute mile. Run faster
than 10 seconds in a hundred meters, we can send people to
the moon.
STUDENT: Still not good enough.
PROFESSOR: Why not.
STUDENT: We had the excitement of watching them on the
moon so we had to put a dune buggy on Mars.
PROFESSOR: Think about it. It's really possible that it
all happened in California. Were you there? I was alive
at the time and I saw Walter crone kite and I trusted
Walter because Walter is just Walter. Forest Gump shook J
F K's hand and talked to him.
STUDENT: Computer generated.
PROFESSOR: I could have been fantasy. If there was no
such thing as Christmas then Wall Street would have to make
it up. 60 to 70 percent of people's Profits come between
December 26 and Jan * January 26. If what you did for
Christmas this year did not involve
money, you write a
14
sincere note to this person about how you're feeling. The
birth of Jesus of Nazareth into the world was the reason we
have Christmas. If you're a jew, Hanukkah, the way that I
remember it is it was a big battle that was won because --
in other words, in the darkness of winter the light still
shines. On the other side of the globe it's winter from
them but it's really summer. Supposedly it's about the
light being in the world of the dark fess. What if your
gifts to each other really reflected that as opposed to do
you think they'll like this sweater or this ring which may
or may not mean something 10 or 15 years from now.
STUDENT: Or you can bring everybody to MacDonald's.
PROFESSOR: It's like honey I love you so much I decided
to write you a poem. In all the things I bought for my
mom, the one thing she always has is this stupid ass little
poem I wrote for her when I was 10 years old.
STUDENT: It meant a lot to her.
PROFESSOR: At what point do we stop? Are we trying to
say we can't really feel that experience anymore so we have
to buy you something.
STUDENT: It's become tradition basically.
PROFESSOR: Tradition. Anybody ever read the story the
lottery.
STUDENT: That is a good story.
PROFESSOR: Starts
off with a bunch of kids in the mid
15
west pit putting rocks together in a pile. All these folks
gather in this little town and there is something going on.
Some people are excited about it but it's basically the
tradition of the lottery but it's gone on forever and ever.
By family everybody picks up a sheet of paper out after a
box. * * one family -- everybody -- interestingly enough
shirrly Jackson got all kinds of hate mail and others
saying hey where can we participate. Then everybody says
who has the black dot who has the black dot? Hutch Shi son
has the black dot. They say you know the rules. Who is in
the family? The mother Tessie says well make my daughter
to do. They say she's married and in this family now.
They're like no. So each of the members of the family,
little kids too, get the slips of paper and Tessie's got
the black dot. They're saying okay people, lets get it
done. All the kids including her son takes these rocks and
they start humming it at her and they kill her. It's
tradition. They was wondering why everybody died on the
same day. It's lottery day. Why do you have to go to the
place you go for Christmas? Because it's tradition. You
know the problem when you get married and you have
different towns you live in. You have different towns to
live in. You have to go to Lafayette and to New Orleans.
Or you can get married and families are in different
states. This year we're going
to go to this family and
16
deep inside you're hearing you should be where you belong.
That's usually in your mom's voice. There is a lot to be
said for family traditions. If you ever saw fiddler on the
roof it's about tradition. The Catholic tradition has an
incredible history to it. It's an incredible weird history
to it. The church has a lot to answer for in the Catholic
faith. That tradition is rich and powerful. I can go to
anywhere in the world and even if it's instain bull and I
don't speak the language I can still say the prayers with
them. Every Sunday you have billions of people saying the
same prayer at the same time. If you have a billion people
saying whatever the Pope says, whatever the Pope says, how
is that different from being a Sheep? What is there
really to gain? What are we trying to gain in our life?
STUDENT: Satisfaction.
PROFESSOR: Is that something you have to gain or
something that's always with you?
STUDENT: Something that should be with you.
PROFESSOR: When you were a kid when were you not
satisfied? If you were hungry or if you had a feeling,
that separation thing which is I'm not the universe at
about 3 or a years old. Up until that point -- how old is
your child?
STUDENT: 7 months.
PROFESSOR: He's
like she's my universe. When I go (cry)
17
you feed me. When I'm 3 you're still part of me. I can
snap my finger and say juice. My 3 year old does that. I
say how do we ask for juice and he says please then snaps
and says juice. Dangerous part is when the kid realizes
you're not doing anything. You say no and they're like
what. At that point we start to feel a little isolated and
then the real intimidating part, the parents, they're big
people an it's like they're volume never rabble. At what
point do we lose that desire to be lifted to Heaven or to
trust?
STUDENT: You were talking about people being satisfied.
I was talking about my grandfather. My mom's family is
from New York. If you know the old camera shot of babe
Ruth when he's pointing. He was pointing at the cubs dug
out cussing the people out and saying I'm going to hit a
home run. People don't want to believe that. They want to
believe he called the shot. He's all about the stadium and
before babe Ruth died when he was playing as a player coach
and he hit the first ball ever hit out of pirate stadium,
that was my grandfather's last couple of breaths, saying *
talking about babe Ruth's home coming. That's when there's
nothing left to lose or gain. You could have said paw-paw
look, the camera shows it and he would be like no.
PROFESSOR: We have been trained, I think, to look for
excitement, the next high.
That's why after 2 weeks of
18
being in a car it's still a car but it's not a new car.
When it's new it's like oh. New relationship. What's the
most exciting moment in any relationship? The moment
before you kiss. After you kiss it's like bad breath,
tongue not working right. Your memory starts doing this
exaggeration thing. And it's like am I excited as I was
last week, is he aging well? Humanness starts to come out.
That moment before the first kiss it's all about oh. It's
an amazing thing. We always want to go back to that. The
problem with that is we always have the crash. It's great
to go for the high but you always have that low. That's
how people smoke. Putting this one out and lighting this
one up.
STUDENT: That's what they believe? It's what they
believe. Why do you need cigarettes?
PROFESSOR: It seems to be that this is what we've been
taught, excitement. If you succeed you stay up high then
this becomes the norm and you have to get higher.
Physically your body breaks down. If you have seen people
who are drug addictss or sex addictss, is it Norepinephrine
or something from the outside. You can see it work on the
outside, their face is wrinkled and all. There was a thing
on L Pb last night and they found out that 6 on to 7 on
percent of the economy in Miami was because of drug money.
So the economy became addicted
to the drug money. Columbia
19
was completed devoted to it. Coffee, cocaine. You can
make money doing cocaine. You can lose 9 on percent of
your product in cocaine and still make an enormous Profit.
They confiscated one major bust, 22 thousand pounds of
cocaine. They thought we've turned a corner. There was
nothing, not even a blip in the supply period or the price.
Then people ask why is it that cocaine matters. It was a
gain at first. You see these people who were speeded out.
You know what happened to Richard prior. This is what's
left. If there is nothing to gain and nothing to lose then
what's left is people and it's not a question of gaining
your friendship but connecting with each and every person
through a thing we call our talents. But your talents are
not something, this is just my proposition, you think about
this and work on this, if you have a problem with this
great, bring it up, but if we take money, power and sex
out, then all that's left inside of me is what I feel I
have to give. There is something inside of me saying my
life will be better if I give this. That transcends my
body, my good days, my bad days because it doesn't depend
on any of those. I'm not riding a roller coaster anymore
if that's where my focus is. Also, I'm not broken anymore,
not de farmed, not looking for something or someone to fix
me.
STUDENT: You still have things
to gain and things to lose.
20
PROFESSOR: I give my talents right now. You can go who
cares and leave and never be seen again.
STUDENT: You still have your talents.
PROFESSOR: Have I gained anything or lost anything?
STUDENT: No.
PROFESSOR: I'm where I started.
STUDENT: Constant thought of others and how you may help
meet their needs.
PROFESSOR: If I'm always thinking of others then I de
pen on somebody else to say you're right, you're giving me
something.
STUDENT: It's just the whole fact of you saying I want you
to have it.
PROFESSOR: It's not a question of wanting you to have it
but it's a question of it's what I have to do. I always
have to do this. Something I discovered over the last 10
years, this is something I have to do.
STUDENT: Why?
PROFESSOR: It burns.
STUDENT: Are you satisfied with doing it?
PROFESSOR: I recognize myself when I do it.
STUDENT: There are imperfections but it's still
worthwhile to you. You're not getting paid enough I'm
sure --
PROFESSOR: Whatever
I can gain can be taken away like
21
this. Do my Hal talents still exist? Yes.
STUDENT: Does it make you feel something you don't feel
outside the classroom?
PROFESSOR: Used to.
PROFESSOR: For Thursday I want you to develop about 5
possible topics that you think you could write about this.
It doesn't have to be necessarily even related to this but
some topic related to work. 5 possible topics. Thursday
we'll workshop them and put some of them on the board so we
can get some feedback on what possibly
you can write about.
CLASS III: WORK III
PROFESSOR: Groups of 3 or 4 and I want each group to
come up with 4 possible topics to write on. Rough draft
due on Tuesday and final draft due next Thursday.
STUDENT: Food and work.
PROFESSOR: Yeah, if you're working at a restaurant
chances are you will gain weight. I worked at a Baskin and
Robbins and I probably ate half my salary. You have to try
things out. Or we could look at just funny stories about
work. Write about your favorite stories about work, silly
stories, stories that kind of keep you human. You could
also do the opposite and do your horror stories about work.
Remember you also need a context, audience and purpose to
go with these but we're just talking about areas that you
can focus on. What's other possible topics?
STUDENT: Starting young.
PROFESSOR: So working as a kid, especially if you'd like
to compare that to working now. I had one person who
worked, he saw one of his favorite things to do was tint
people's cars. Some people said he did a really good job
and he got a job from someone who saw one done and his view
before was work and play and then it became a job and it
lost that appeal for him when he started to have deadlines
and not choose his clients and things. You could do work
as a child different from work
now like doing the laundry,
2
doing the lawn. Now you have a job and maybe a uniform and
stuff. Those are possibilities.
STUDENT: Career related relationships.
PROFESSOR: Okay. Such as?
STUDENT: How you relate to people on the job versus
others.
PROFESSOR: So co workers versus friends, real
relationships. A lot of people refer to co workers as
being the more real relationships. You could look at that
or anything dealing with relationships on the job. You
could look at your boss and the workers and how co workers
interact and why they do. You could look at why the coffee
pot is where people hang out, why do people gossip on the
job, why is everybody interested in what everybody else is
doing?
STUDENT: Relationships with people outside of your job
as work.
PROFESSOR: Yeah. Looking at relationships as work. We
see a lot of books on self improvement, new and improved.
So this could be like guidelines on relationships, things
you've learned on how it is to work a relationship. You
may have a parent child situation, the work involved there
or friendships. There are different kinds of friendships
also. You know what you deal with. It's also work to work
on a hate relationship. Every
time before you see that
3
person you have to work it up. What else?
STUDENT: Destructive habits of work.
PROFESSOR: Such as?
STUDENT: You work at a restaurant and you want to go out
and drink every night because everybody pisses you off.
PROFESSOR: Okay you may feel your drinking is related to
work.
STUDENT: Marijuana.
PROFESSOR: Whatever. So maybe destructive habits that
come from that demoralization. What else?
STUDENT: Will I always work?
PROFESSOR: Okay. You can take that proposition and do a
lot with that. You can do some sort of fantasy like what
you think your future may be like. There is no mystery to
why MacDonald's -- like even star bucks is a drive through
now. As my brother said last night, coffee is an end of
itself. He used to look like me then he lost 600 pounds.
He rubs it in by giving me all his old clothes. He's gone
from a 40 inch waste to a 28 inch waste in about a year and
a half.
STUDENT: Was he sweating to the olddies?
PROFESSOR: He started exercising and stopped eating at
much. There were 2 reasons, his job was taking his whole
life so when he did eat he'd eat a lot of carbohydrates.
He was stressed out a lot and his
youngest kid was still
4
not 5 years old. His youngest child became 5 and more
independent and all of a sudden he had free time at home
because he could take her like roller blading or bike
riding and he was not just biking around the neighbor hood
of the lake front but he was biking from UNO to lake side
mall and back. That's about 10 to 15 miles easy. But it
tells you what a toll your work and life can have on your
body. Anybody ever seen Austin powers and the spy who
shagged me?
STUDENT: Are talking about fat bastard?
PROFESSOR: Sexy body man.
STUDENT: It's making me all emotional.
PROFESSOR: Okay. We don't need anymore of that. What
other things did you come up with?
STUDENT: Job promotions, titles.
PROFESSOR: So the concept of them?
STUDENT: Yeah.
STUDENT: The stress surrounding them.
STUDENT: Why you work so hard to get promotions.
PROFESSOR: Yeah, motivations --
STUDENT: And then why you don't get it.
STUDENT: There are people now who work and work and work
so when they retire they'll be great but they're not
enjoying what they have now.
PROFESSOR: So
that work for tomorrow and not today.
5
That's a good topic, why it is people work for tomorrow and
trying to create some sort of security for a day that may
never come. There is a maxim for that, save for a rainy
day. You know the ant and the grass hopper story? Another
way of looking at it is the grasshopper had a good time
while he was living and sometimes winter doesn't come for
you. My office mate is probably going to be losing his
mother to cancer in the next couple of days and I just lost
an uncle and when ever you think about people and
yourselves on their death bed you think well would I have
rather been the ant or the grasshopper. You work and work
and then maybe the promotions never come. You feel
cheated. Sure you need to prepare and plan but why is it
that this is what you're living for? Does it really
matter? On your death bed are you going to look at all the
trophies and titles? I don't know, they might. That's
like the memory of babe Ruth. What other topics did you
come up with?
STUDENT: How work efficient am I?
PROFESSOR: Right or how it's defined and why it's
defined. In football there is such a thing known as over
pursuit where the defense can actually be so efficient that
the off fence is able to throw the ball over their heads so
the defense is then behind the ball and the Guy is over
here taking off but the defense
has been efficient but they
6
lose the play. We call that efficiency. A friend of mine
like if your work is dissatisfying, to have a motivational
speaker come in and tell you how to be more efficient about
wasting the time in your life is not a good thing. It's
just like in your writing. You can have a beautifully
written paragraph where all the sentences flow together but
it can mean absolutely nothing. With the idea of
efficiency comes the other idea of evaluation. If you've
ever been evaluated you may want to think about that and
why you were evaluated and how it turned out for you. What
else did you come up with?
STUDENT: Why work?
STUDENT: Why do people stay at jobs they hate?
PROFESSOR: That's a good one. That's one I would have
assigned. If you get into this then you start to look at
why did people keep doing the things they hate?
STUDENT: The pressure of work.
PROFESSOR: If you talk about pressure, this is a big
part of this essay is going to be definitions. The words
you use and how you explain them. You can say the term
pressure and honestly, I mean what is -- what does it mean
to have peer pressure?
STUDENT: Lets say a mother has kids. Even if she
doesn't have a job or whatever that's still work taking
care of the kids. Basically
when you say why stay at jobs
7
that you really hate, taking care of kids is a job
basically so why do it?
STUDENT: That's not necessarily a job you hate. You
obviously don't have children. If you have a child you put
everything in your life into that child, even beyond making
it. You would not even be able to say that. You would not
ask that question. It's beyond work.
STUDENT: I know that but it's still a job.
PROFESSOR: There are job aspects to it.
STUDENT: But it's not a job, it's not optional unless
you give up the whole option. It's not like today I feel
like being trev voar's mom and tomorrow I do nothing. It's
not optional.
PROFESSOR: Actually it is. It's a daily choice. There
are people who are mothers and fathers that checkout all
the time.
STUDENT: When you choose to be a mother you make a
choice, you've chosen that job for yourself. For me to say
tomorrow I just won't change his diaper all day long, that
would be insane.
PROFESSOR: You're making an important distinction.
Adult responsibility of choosing and accepting the
responsibilities of those choices and most people find
themselves where this just happened to me and doesn't that
suck to be me. That's mostly
in the younger mothers. So
8
either the child is born and they make the choice to take
care of it or they pass it off because they still want to
do what they want to do. This is a big difference because
if you see your job as something you have to do because
society tells you you have to and you have only a limited
amount of choices then you fall into something that you can
indeed hate because you know it never was your choice. If
you're here because someone made you be here or society
made you be here then you're wasting your time. If it's a
choice and you make the vocation then it's not a job
anymore.
STUDENT: I think unlike a job, even a person who gives
up that responsibility, you can ask any person that gave up
a child there is a feeling of regret or loss. I could give
up my job tomorrow and not care because I have no stake in
it other than work. Having a child there is stake in it
whether you choose to give it up or not.
STUDENT: Some give it up and don't care.
PROFESSOR: The difference you're putting up is the
stake. When you made the choice then you've invested in it
and if you have a stake in it and then if people lose their
stake in work and they give it up -- when a person makes a
choice, it doesn't matter what it is. We make the
distinction between a child and work but it's the same
thing. I invested and said
this is important but I chose
9
this to be important. In our society we're not trained or
taught to be responsible for these choices. We're victims,
cigarette smoking everybody's a victim. Everybody is a
victim of drugs or abuse or myself esteem is bad because of
the way everybody treated me. At a certain point in your
life that has to change or you continue having this meaning
less existence. At a certain point you choose the person
you are. So if you're still whining, bitching and moaning
about your life then you have not made it yet because
somebody still has control over you. A lot of people say
I'm doing this job that I hate for the kids. If you do
that you hate your kids. You do. There is nothing wrong
with doing the job to make the responsibility work but if
you're doing it for the kids and you hate your job then you
look at them and say I'm doing this for them. After a
while that doesn't work, especially if they grow up not
being what you wanted them to be. most families don't
have a evening meal because that's when a lot of talking
comes in and some people don't want to do that.
STUDENT: My dad always told me I want the best for you
in life and I always told him I don't want what you want
that's all I heard for the longest time.
PROFESSOR: That's a person -- if you as a parent and
your life sucks then you're going to try and make peace
with it through your children.
That's what a lot of people
10
end up doing. It's also through your significant other.
My life sucks, heal me, make me complete. So these
relationships are supposed to be satisfying but they can
become these very destructive or co dependent all because
you know, in your heart, that what you're working at
doesn't matter, it doesn't mean anything. So what are you
doing and what are you going to do? Many people are going
to tell you this is what you should do.
STUDENT: Then I say at work -- I know I'm going to get
fired one day because people try to tell me what to do and
I hate that. If you let me do my own thing I'm great
because I respect your rules and all of that but if you
tell me I have to do this then I lose it.
PROFESSOR: There are a lot of people who say I want to
be in medicine because I want the money but they hate every
Doctor or lawyer they meet. I knew a lot of people in
engineering because of the money and then when they meet
real engineers they go boring or either they liked it. It
depends on your personality. If you have an attitude
toward your work or job or whatever that you don't care it
may be that you want to create your own situation where
you're allowed that kind of freedom. Try to contract your
muscle for as long as you can hold it. Eventually the
muscle collapses. How long can you hang on like that. Or
you get your job and you're afraid
you will be found out as
11
a fraud. I had a friend of mine on a phone interview and
it was character basically and I said how did the interview
go. He said I told the truth.
STUDENT: I didn't get a job at Lowe's because of that.
PROFESSOR: Would you want to work at a job that they
didn't accept your answers. My brother was interviewed by
several programs when going for an internship and one of
the programs asked him was he a homosexual. The fact they
asked him that question told him something about their
value system that he wanted no part of and he got up and
left. He's not a homosexual but he wanted no part of that.
One female, 24, 25, attractive woman, and she was in
interviews at a national convention in a hotel room and it
was a Suite and it was call guys who was interviewing. She
was asked to sit on the bed because they took away all the
chairs. If you're a Guy you're saying what's the big deal
but if you're a woman it is a big deal. She said excuse
me, I'm out of here. I don't want any part of an
organization that treats women like this because if I'm
hired this is how they'll treat me. When we start thinking
of our work as important and what we to offer is valuable
and not definable because after all what do you make in
your job, what you're worth, what your job is worth or what
it costs to replace you. If you allow yourself to be
defined by that as a person then
that's dangerous. They
12
can say I'm going to take that away and then where are you?
Why are we scared? This creates more fear than anything
else that I'm aware of. It's scarier than violence in the
workplace, violence in the schools, scarier than our drug
problem, education problem. If you ask people the first
thing they're scared of is losing their job.
STUDENT: Because you've built your life around your job.
PROFESSOR: Right. It's about your job, how you're
defined by your job, the title and mostly the income and
what you think it's going to give you. If you have some
faith about you that what you're doing matters and is
important to you, ultimately it doesn't matter if anybody
pays attention or not because you know it matters. Then
you handle yourself differently and people say wow, you
know what you're doing. It's kind of like on a date. At
what point do I realize that if I keep dating this person
eventually I' going to have to be around this person and
not have on make up or be around this person and fart. I
look a certain way, I talk a certain way and all of that
because I know this is what's going to make me attractive.
Know what you're getting in to. What do we want to do? Be
loved. It's the same thing on a job interview. Do we have
the courage to say what it is we want out of life? This is
what's going to help you get it. It's not going to be the
money and the power and all of
that. When you stop looking
13
at homework as a way of getting a grade and look at it as
how it's helping me focus ideas and thoughts and having
more confidence in my ability to develop my own life, if
that's what it's for then why does it matter if someone
picks it up or if you get a bad grade on it. Some people
look at obstacles as a justification that they're on the
right track because feedback is feedback. Who wants to be
bad? Would you have made a different decision if you would
have known all the specifications? I think with better
intelligence we make a different choice. Even murderers
can justify it in their heads. I had to do it. You don't
understand, I had to do it. So how are you going to look
at this thing that is work? Are you going to use your
talents or not? You can choose whatever you want as long
as you understand it's your choice. So you may want to
look at that topic, what if there is nothing to gain and
nothing to lose. How would you treat your life differently
in terms of what you're going to offer? Not looking at
your accomplishments and achievements, what are your real
talents? What experiences have told that. Somebody in the
other class is going to do theirs on their ideal job. Her
audience can be the universe or God. There are no atheists
during mid-terms, finals or when a cop shows up.
STUDENT: Or when you lean over the toilet bowl.
PROFESSOR: Any
other possible topics y'all came up with?
14
Going once, going twice, rough draft on Tuesday, final
draft on Thursday. Make sure you have a context, audience
and purpose. Redoes are due
on Tuesday.
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at
nandoman1@zdnetonebox.com
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