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I sort of teach a class every year to 10th graders. It's not really a class, but it is. It's called the Game of Real Life. Don't bother looking for it online. You won't find it.
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| Not real life. A lot more fun. |
It was developed in S. Georgia. It discusses career options for high school students, puts one in a minimum wage job and they go shopping with their month's wages, explains job requirements, interview tips and so forth. The key to this is it is reality based and it's taught by someone who is not a regular teacher (i.e. me).
It works.
One of the things I tell them is reality is not going to reorder itself to fit their expectations.
Except I don't say it that way.
I tell them this:
The world is run by old, fat white guys.
Get used to the idea. Pick someone successful. Anyone. Don't care who. How did that person achieve success. Look long enough and you'll find an old fat white guy who runs a bank who made an investment. The banker sat in his chair and made a lot of money while the successful person (maybe a generation or two away) went out and did all the hard work.
S'called reality.
Body piercings you can shove a vienna sausage through? See above. Pierced nose? Nostril? Skin studs and rings? See above.
I realize things are changing. I realize someone has to enter the woods to start the path, but the first person to enter the dark and deep woods gets killed. Every time. The woods are not scaled to the experience level of the player, like in AD&D. Nope. Toddlers are thrown to cave bears. The next person to enter is killed. And the next and the next and the next. Yes, each person makes it a stop farther into the woods. Given enough people and enough time, eventually a clear path is made through the woods, the cave bears are burgers and the hides are on the wall. But many died to make this happen. Those who get extensive body mods, and I include tats in this, are still walking through these metaphorical woods and still dying.
A restaurant in my town, which pays well for being a fast food joint and well for my community, interviewed a lady for an assistant manager post when it was opening. She had the job. Until she stood up an a tat was made visible. She was not hired and will not be hired. Corporate policy is no visible tats. In my above metaphorical world, she was devoured by the cave bear.
Don't like it? Explain it to the cave bear. Don't expect him to listen.
I state here and for the record. I do not like body mods, aside from a lady with a single piercing in each ear.
Get mad at me if you wanna. I'm good with that. I also happen to be a nearly old fat white guy.
Before you rail at me, let me point out I do not like the herb dill, caraway seeds, armadillos, lawyers, Congress, the president (pick one), romance novels, commercial television, big cities, being sick, the bands U2, The Pretenders and most of the work of Billy Joel. I am quite certain there are things you do not like which I do like.
I do not like them, but I know other people do. That's their business, not mine. I'm tempted to say I do not judge people who have body mods, but as an employer, I do. I will not hire someone with the kind of mods like the gent above for some kinds of work done in my business.
Outside of my business world, more power to him.
Tattoos and body mods are not for me. Never mind the fact I have plenty of unintentional and unintended body mods. Accidents have left me with scars in a lot of places and at least one place (now almost faded into invisibility) with what amounts to a tattoo.
If you want to look like a survivor from an exploded ink factory, enjoy. You do not need my permission, acceptance or condoning. Be you. It's not for me. I remind you some of the things I enjoy are not something you like.
Beyond that and returning to my metaphor, I do understand what it is like to be a rebel, to walk into those woods and be devoured by the cave bear.
The first blacks who integrated the schools had a miserable time. The first women in the military, same thing. It's hard being a trailblazer. Sometimes you get tired and tired of fighting. I appreciate all those who have blazed trails, but to expect that people will just roll over and accept the trailblazers is, as you pointed out, unrealistic.
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