Rant.
I have been thinking about a few things recently that I need to get out of my system.
I am annoyed with rich people. I know that statement makes me sound like I'm prejudice, so please understand that I don't mean ALL rich people. What I don't understand is why some rich people feel that they're better and more important because they have money. And what I understand even LESS is how people do in fact treat them as though they are more important. This weekend I had the privilege of staying in our Whistler home for the first time. The place is palatial and I adored it. It is, however, extravagant, and I'm pretty sure that I would not buy a place like that even if I had the means. I won't say "definitely" because then I might just go and prove myself a liar. Anyway. There is a staff of people there who are basically paid to do what the homeowners want. This includes fetching things for them from the market, adding chlorine to their personal hot tubs, making sure they don't run out of towels, and taking them all over the place in the state-of-the-art SUVs. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure they get paid well. What bothers me is how edgy they seem.... so worried that they're going to displease me and my family and get fired or something. I went to the pool one evening to take a look around and the guy putting the cover on immediately stopped what he was doing, asked if something was wrong and if he could do anything for me. He looked kind of scared, and that just isn't right. Ashlee and I took advantage of having one of the employees, Mick, driving us down to the village because we were scared we would get lost (yes, Ashlee is about as bad with directions as I am). She will vouch for me when I write that his attitude towards me changed noticeably after I told him that we had won our chapter. It was like... we could all talk like real people again.
I guess the problem is that money = power in our society. This is something that I have learned at Tomko, especially over this summer, as I become more involved with sales and customer service. If there is someone with enough money, we will bend over backwards to accomodate their desires and crappy moods. How often has one of us been yelled at by a moody rich jerk who thinks he / she can harrass us just because they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth? or because they've been successful in business? Rich doesn't mean that you have license to be a jerk. What REALLY burns me up is when people find out that I'm the daughter of the guy who owns the company. Suddenly it goes from "come hither, slave" to "have a great day, Ian's daughter." Please. Give me a break. I don't want someone's respect by association. How about we give Sara respect because she's a decent human being? Well... kind of decent ;). Grr.
Here's a story. There is a guy called Charlwood or something like that (don't know his first name, he's just "Mr. Charlwood"). Apparently he owns Uniglobe Travel and a bunch of other crap. He has his OWN STREET in the nicest part of West Van (the street is called Camelot... how fitting!). He has private jets and stuff like that, so he's one of the richest guys in Canada. He buys a trampoline from us through one of our customers, as a gift for his eight year old daughter's birthday. We get a call from a man claiming that there is a part missing for his trampoline. We do the usual, explaining that we'll have the part in the mail that day. Nono, that's not good enough. Line 2 starts ringing, and Jim (he's the customer who resold the trampoline) is freaking out, saying that Charlwood is on the phone yelling at him because there is a piece missing from his trampoline. Turns out, the guy on Line 1 is the gardner for Charlwood and Charlwood is calling from a plane that's about to land in Greece and everyone is freaking out. His daughter is having 150 people at her birthday party and he has the gardner, the maid, the butler, and the chauffeur (I'm not kidding) out in the woods of his property putting this trampoline together in secret for the big event and if the piece isn't there he is going to return the whole thing and not pay for it or the other work that Jim had been doing. Not only that but the rest of his "staff" will surely suffer. I don't know. I much prefer doing things for people who are nice. I would have liked to meet this Charlwood character. But truth be told, I'd probably be a bit intimidated by him. Why??????!!!
And why do you need your own street? I think there are too many people who are so concerned with material things that it is getting a bit ridiculous. I like things. I like my stereo and my laptop and I like having more than one pair of shoes. I also like Tim Horton's and buying cds and concert tickets. But I was watching "The Fabulous Life of..." and I was shocked to see how some of these people are living. Missy Elliot spends like ten thousand dollars a day on her appearance. A DAY. She has a makeup artist who puts on her makeup while she is asleep and gets diamond manicures almost every day. She never wears a pair of sneakers twice, and from the looks of it, she keeps them all. Maybe she's an amazing person. Maybe she donates tonnes of money / sneakers to the needy. But really. A personalized "MISSY" water fountain in your apartment? A bit much I think. If Justin Timberlake could part with one of his 75 watches (each worth thousands and thousands of dollars), he could probably change some lives. I'm not saying that everyone has to fundraise and work their butts off to go to Namibia and work in an orphanage with children who are the victims of AIDS (though that is AMAAAAAZING). But the fact of the matter is that we are concerned with finding some extra change for the Grande instead of the Tall while so many kids are helpless over there... and over here.
I can't seem to get off this soapbox tonight. Why isn't health of fellow human beings the most important thing? Does the pandemic have to reach us here in North America before the people who really have power (money?) will take notice? If everyone chipped in a few bucks, that's a lot of bucks. But I'm prattling and getting off topic. We live in a culture that tells us that Missy Elliot and Justin Timberlake live lives that are "fabulous" and we should be awestruck by their splendor. If we work hard enough, maybe we can be the next Missy or Justin. Well of course not, because we aren't as fabulous. But why is this the ideal? I am really no happier now that I have a PalmPilot? Sure my dad's truck is cool, but my car works just fine. We have SO MUCH stuff. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, until you look at how little other people have. Is their perspective the same as ours? Do they consider themselves to be failures because they don't have as much crap as North America? I hope not. We could and should probably learn from countries where, after survival, there are more important things than material goods. I got a cheesy email today that really hit home, especially with all these thoughts churning in my head. We need to stop buying things and take the time to say "I love you". There are things in this life that are passing us by because we don't see how precious they are.
An example of how things should be involves a car ride that I took with a friend recently. She was upset, so she sat in my passenger seat as we went out to the mall to get my cousin's wedding present. After talking things through for a while, she turned to me and said, "do you know how thankful I am to have you?". OK, it might sound like I'm trying to toot my own horn here, but just hear this out. I can honestly say that hearing that from her is so much cooler than my PalmPilot and my laptop and my stereo and my dad's truck (yes, even my dad's truck!!!!). It brings me so much happiness and it made my day. My week. I wish that I could keep that frame of mind every day, and remember how it's THOSE THINGS that are most important instead of trying to see if I can round up enough money to get a digital camera. My family has one, but no. I want my own. Do I really? Or is North America telling me? Is it materialistic Sara? I am hoping that with time, we can tone down materialistic Sara, so that she is a smaller part of me. Stuff is cool. Things can be good. But I have proven to myself and I have seen that it does NOT bring true happiness. True happiness for me so far in my life has come from relationships and the love that I have given and received. Happiness can't be bought with money.
I urge people to smile and to laugh and to enjoy the company of others. You can absolutely make someone's day in the simplest of ways. I have believed this for a long time, and it was proven to me recently. Maybe I'm idealistic, but that must be expected. I'm not stupid or foolish, I'm young and passionate. Someday I hope to be old and passionate.
I hope that rich jerks will take an ego-break and realize that they are not the cat's meow. I hope that instead of looking down their nose at the people working on their behalf, they will look them in the eye and treat them as they would an equal. Money doesn't make someone superior - it should make them the same person that they were before they had the money.
I'm not making sense anymore. There is so much that I want to say... so much that is just streaking through my head and making me frustrated with the English language (or at least my ability to use it to get what I'm thinking out in words). Blast it. I'm going to sleep.
:).
I am annoyed with rich people. I know that statement makes me sound like I'm prejudice, so please understand that I don't mean ALL rich people. What I don't understand is why some rich people feel that they're better and more important because they have money. And what I understand even LESS is how people do in fact treat them as though they are more important. This weekend I had the privilege of staying in our Whistler home for the first time. The place is palatial and I adored it. It is, however, extravagant, and I'm pretty sure that I would not buy a place like that even if I had the means. I won't say "definitely" because then I might just go and prove myself a liar. Anyway. There is a staff of people there who are basically paid to do what the homeowners want. This includes fetching things for them from the market, adding chlorine to their personal hot tubs, making sure they don't run out of towels, and taking them all over the place in the state-of-the-art SUVs. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure they get paid well. What bothers me is how edgy they seem.... so worried that they're going to displease me and my family and get fired or something. I went to the pool one evening to take a look around and the guy putting the cover on immediately stopped what he was doing, asked if something was wrong and if he could do anything for me. He looked kind of scared, and that just isn't right. Ashlee and I took advantage of having one of the employees, Mick, driving us down to the village because we were scared we would get lost (yes, Ashlee is about as bad with directions as I am). She will vouch for me when I write that his attitude towards me changed noticeably after I told him that we had won our chapter. It was like... we could all talk like real people again.
I guess the problem is that money = power in our society. This is something that I have learned at Tomko, especially over this summer, as I become more involved with sales and customer service. If there is someone with enough money, we will bend over backwards to accomodate their desires and crappy moods. How often has one of us been yelled at by a moody rich jerk who thinks he / she can harrass us just because they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth? or because they've been successful in business? Rich doesn't mean that you have license to be a jerk. What REALLY burns me up is when people find out that I'm the daughter of the guy who owns the company. Suddenly it goes from "come hither, slave" to "have a great day, Ian's daughter." Please. Give me a break. I don't want someone's respect by association. How about we give Sara respect because she's a decent human being? Well... kind of decent ;). Grr.
Here's a story. There is a guy called Charlwood or something like that (don't know his first name, he's just "Mr. Charlwood"). Apparently he owns Uniglobe Travel and a bunch of other crap. He has his OWN STREET in the nicest part of West Van (the street is called Camelot... how fitting!). He has private jets and stuff like that, so he's one of the richest guys in Canada. He buys a trampoline from us through one of our customers, as a gift for his eight year old daughter's birthday. We get a call from a man claiming that there is a part missing for his trampoline. We do the usual, explaining that we'll have the part in the mail that day. Nono, that's not good enough. Line 2 starts ringing, and Jim (he's the customer who resold the trampoline) is freaking out, saying that Charlwood is on the phone yelling at him because there is a piece missing from his trampoline. Turns out, the guy on Line 1 is the gardner for Charlwood and Charlwood is calling from a plane that's about to land in Greece and everyone is freaking out. His daughter is having 150 people at her birthday party and he has the gardner, the maid, the butler, and the chauffeur (I'm not kidding) out in the woods of his property putting this trampoline together in secret for the big event and if the piece isn't there he is going to return the whole thing and not pay for it or the other work that Jim had been doing. Not only that but the rest of his "staff" will surely suffer. I don't know. I much prefer doing things for people who are nice. I would have liked to meet this Charlwood character. But truth be told, I'd probably be a bit intimidated by him. Why??????!!!
And why do you need your own street? I think there are too many people who are so concerned with material things that it is getting a bit ridiculous. I like things. I like my stereo and my laptop and I like having more than one pair of shoes. I also like Tim Horton's and buying cds and concert tickets. But I was watching "The Fabulous Life of..." and I was shocked to see how some of these people are living. Missy Elliot spends like ten thousand dollars a day on her appearance. A DAY. She has a makeup artist who puts on her makeup while she is asleep and gets diamond manicures almost every day. She never wears a pair of sneakers twice, and from the looks of it, she keeps them all. Maybe she's an amazing person. Maybe she donates tonnes of money / sneakers to the needy. But really. A personalized "MISSY" water fountain in your apartment? A bit much I think. If Justin Timberlake could part with one of his 75 watches (each worth thousands and thousands of dollars), he could probably change some lives. I'm not saying that everyone has to fundraise and work their butts off to go to Namibia and work in an orphanage with children who are the victims of AIDS (though that is AMAAAAAZING). But the fact of the matter is that we are concerned with finding some extra change for the Grande instead of the Tall while so many kids are helpless over there... and over here.
I can't seem to get off this soapbox tonight. Why isn't health of fellow human beings the most important thing? Does the pandemic have to reach us here in North America before the people who really have power (money?) will take notice? If everyone chipped in a few bucks, that's a lot of bucks. But I'm prattling and getting off topic. We live in a culture that tells us that Missy Elliot and Justin Timberlake live lives that are "fabulous" and we should be awestruck by their splendor. If we work hard enough, maybe we can be the next Missy or Justin. Well of course not, because we aren't as fabulous. But why is this the ideal? I am really no happier now that I have a PalmPilot? Sure my dad's truck is cool, but my car works just fine. We have SO MUCH stuff. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, until you look at how little other people have. Is their perspective the same as ours? Do they consider themselves to be failures because they don't have as much crap as North America? I hope not. We could and should probably learn from countries where, after survival, there are more important things than material goods. I got a cheesy email today that really hit home, especially with all these thoughts churning in my head. We need to stop buying things and take the time to say "I love you". There are things in this life that are passing us by because we don't see how precious they are.
An example of how things should be involves a car ride that I took with a friend recently. She was upset, so she sat in my passenger seat as we went out to the mall to get my cousin's wedding present. After talking things through for a while, she turned to me and said, "do you know how thankful I am to have you?". OK, it might sound like I'm trying to toot my own horn here, but just hear this out. I can honestly say that hearing that from her is so much cooler than my PalmPilot and my laptop and my stereo and my dad's truck (yes, even my dad's truck!!!!). It brings me so much happiness and it made my day. My week. I wish that I could keep that frame of mind every day, and remember how it's THOSE THINGS that are most important instead of trying to see if I can round up enough money to get a digital camera. My family has one, but no. I want my own. Do I really? Or is North America telling me? Is it materialistic Sara? I am hoping that with time, we can tone down materialistic Sara, so that she is a smaller part of me. Stuff is cool. Things can be good. But I have proven to myself and I have seen that it does NOT bring true happiness. True happiness for me so far in my life has come from relationships and the love that I have given and received. Happiness can't be bought with money.
I urge people to smile and to laugh and to enjoy the company of others. You can absolutely make someone's day in the simplest of ways. I have believed this for a long time, and it was proven to me recently. Maybe I'm idealistic, but that must be expected. I'm not stupid or foolish, I'm young and passionate. Someday I hope to be old and passionate.
I hope that rich jerks will take an ego-break and realize that they are not the cat's meow. I hope that instead of looking down their nose at the people working on their behalf, they will look them in the eye and treat them as they would an equal. Money doesn't make someone superior - it should make them the same person that they were before they had the money.
I'm not making sense anymore. There is so much that I want to say... so much that is just streaking through my head and making me frustrated with the English language (or at least my ability to use it to get what I'm thinking out in words). Blast it. I'm going to sleep.
:).
posted by Sara at
10:40 p.m.
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