Choose Strong
For Tim.
January has the New Year, Feburary often has the Chinese New Year to look
forward to, and March usually is the busiest at workplace. Bill had not paid
much attention to April until 2022. The clouds often took half of the sky and
hid the sun behind, leaving the other half bright and sapphire blue. The bare
branches of the gingko trees had been gussied up in a few weeks to full jade
green summer attire. Rains were again too much to ask and a few showers were
cheered across the Bay. The air was cool, the breeze mild, and it was very
pleasant outdoors.
In spring break, father and son enjoyed a train ride to San Francisco and a
nice walk on the Embarcadero. The place was clean and much less crowded than
pre-Covid. They stopped at the ferry building and after each relished a grilled
pepperoni sandwich visited the "Book Passage" store. A thick volume titled
'Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About' was on the stand and Bill
was attracted to it like a trout to a fly. But he finally decided not to buy
because he was already seen as wierd and the book might help alienate him more
from civilization.
His main problem, as his wife used to point out, that set him apart from normal
people, was his dark imagination and negative outlook on life. As an example, he
had stopped going to the popular hotpot restaurant at the north end of Castro
street in downtown Mountain View since it changed owners early in the pandemic.
The food was still good and even better according to some Yelp reviews. He
rejected it because the place was renamed "Happy Lamb" from "Little Sheep."
The new name was grisly, he protested: "It's anthropomorphic to call lambs happy
and thereby suggesting dining there akin to cannibalism." "Besides," he argued
"everyone knows that the lamb represents Christ." It was OK to sacrifice the
animal to God but quite unlucky for you and I to feast on it. 'Little Sheep,' on
the other hand, had no such sinful connotation and therefore was safe, he concluded.
His brand of sensitivity colors almost everything: why would the ad for the local
casino, the M8trix, follow the Amazon Mother's Day vignette on CBS News? Could
the order mean to propose a gambling spree for moms this year?
His company re-opened its headquarters starting May and he went to the
celebration lunch just to see a few old colleagues. There were L the 64-year-old
trail runner who just finished the 100-mile "Pistol Ultra" race and more
recently became a grandfather, Andrew from Hongkong who was born Catholic but
converted to Protestantism in America and who baked bread as a hobby, Scott the
Minnesotan who moved up to Bill's old Sunset neighborhood in San Francisco,
Triet from Vietnam who studied and lived according to the I-Ching, and a couple
more colleagues. They had worked together for more than five years. It felt good
spending one and a half hours chatting about Covid (few wore masks), kids,
school, housing, retirement, etc., over beef tacos, guacamole, and bacon-wrapped
jalapeno poppers while a band played Mexican music. Gams are essential, for
whales or humans.
But in Bill's gloomy view, two years of work-from-home have corrupted the people
and damaged their Puritan work ethic. No one planned to grind away in the office
day in and day out like before and most were thinking about coming onsite twice
a week. That was going to be the new normal.
You made good points about the flexibility of working and consumer economy. I
feel lucky that with historic gas prices these days I don't have to drive often.
The local train has even halved its fares and Tim is happy. In our house, mom
is the only one contributing much to the economy.
Bill said thank you and he was glad to know that he was thought funny and not
just wierd.
It looks like quite some companies are starting to ask employees back to office for a few days, if not fully. We have been back to office twice a week for months already.
Disruptive pandemic is, it welcomingly gives us an opportunity to work from home that would otherwise never happen. Working remotely in a way helps save the commute time and squander less resources. We dine less, consume less of gas, clothes, etc. But our economy is consumers' economy. We need to get back to work to help boost the consumption:)) And young people, in particular, need to social at workplace.
Bill is funny too. He is right that Happy Lamb is not a good name. How could lamb be happy being eaten:))
Have a great weekend!