The Old Guitarist

Dear 70% of People Who Own The Old Guitarist;

This particular Picasso is not meant to be displayed horizontally. This old, suffering man playing guitar is not sitting on his couch, enjoying some doritos while strumming some chords. He didn’t just recline against a pile of pillows and pick up his head so he could keep an eye on “America’s Got Talent.” The man didn’t just take off his shoes because it made him ‘feel more free’ during his jam sesh.

Instead, the painting is displayed vertically. The subject is hunched over his guitar, neck sharply craned. The neck angle alone should give you a hint. Would a happy person slump over like a 2 legged stool, with the weight of sheer misery pulling him toward the ground? Certainly, the old guitarist didn’t purchase his shirt pre-ripped from Urban Outfitters; Picasso wished to express the subtle concept of not having enough money to buy another shirt.

So it turns out your painting was less “coolest guy in your college dorm” and more “that guy you pretend not to see when you walk to work.”

Fresh Air’s Suprising Take on Employability

Today, NPR came out with an episode of “All Things Considered” that discusses the most lucrative college majors and the least lucrative college majors.  It’s unclear exactly how much of the five minute segment came from the study of Anthony Carnevale, or how much came from the producers of the show. Upon further research the study itself (an 182 page document) contained many statistics that break down earnings based on race and gender, but does not seem to contain a section on why people choose their majors.

The piece seemed uncharacteristic for NPR in that it discussed income from an individualistic standpoint. The piece reiterated over and over again how very much someone could earn if they picked a major like petroleum engineering, and how little the others would make. The underlying drumbeat of the piece seemed to say: you could be earning so much more! Besides, the people up top are handing out these jobs like hotcakes; Don’t fail to get one! Never mind the social and market forces that go into the huge variations in pay for Americans, never mind the shrinking middle class.

It suddenly got very offensive when the broadcaster, Lisa Chow listed the three possible motives for choosing lower-earning majors: altruistic tendencies of students, plans to eventually attend grad school, and the ease of completion of those lower-level majors. Chow said, “…it’s easier. Not everyone is cut out to be a petroleum engineer, even if they want to make money.” The idea that other majors are so much easier is offensive. How would you compare person doing an excellent job in a social science class and someone who does a mediocre job in an engineering class? Did the creator of this episode stop to consider that not every engineering student is a genius?

Unfortunately, I have to leave. I have to get some sleep before attending an easy-peasy class taking place in NYC tomorrow.

 

Life in The U.S.

If you live in the suburbs, you need a car.  If you live in the city, you need money to avoid living in a dangerous neighborhood.  In effect, you literally have to pay to stay out of neighborhoods with high crime rates.

Then again, I have a suburban sensibility when it comes to what constitutes a neighborhood with high crime rates.  Plenty of people don’t have a problem living in places that I would avoid.  Perhaps my sense of privilege keeps me out.

For now, I live a relatively cloistered, Victorian lifestyle. Hm.

Living in a Breeder State

At some point in my life, I heard someone refer to Connecticut as a Breeder State. This means that the vast majority of people living here chose this state in order to reproduce. Most of the restaurants, community events, and community resources are designed with children in mind. In your travels around town, you encounter read alouds, the constant sound of crying, family events with the decorating of cookies, and family-centered daily activities where you will socialize with the other breeders of the state. As for myself, I have not ever had a job that does not involve caring lovingly for children, though childcare has nothing to do with my career path.

Don’t get me wrong. I love children and their innate cuteness. However, sometimes it seems like this focus on children slowly sucks the life out of me and everyone I know. In my head I have a picture of me, dressed in fashionable clothing and bicycling on the side of the road. SUVs and minivans whiz past me, and inside are the children that I work with. They wonder aloud why their teacher/caretaker is stuck on the side of the road. Their mothers respond, saying that I’ve yet to have that magical experience: I’ve yet to breed and begin carting around my offspring in a vehicle that cost my husband thousands of dollars.  Without giving it a second thought, they will marginalize me, admonishing me for my childish fixation on riding a bicycle and writing stories. It’s a really ugly picture.