Posts tagged with arts.

Minimum wage and the sad absurdity of the human race

Bryce Warnes, September 4, 2009 at 11:36 AM

Since November I've been working at a gas station for nine dollars an hour. The experience has been educational in the same way that peeing  on an electric fence is educational: it teaches you never to do it again. To be honest, though, I've had worse jobs. I worked for a while waiting tables in a restaurant. The owners were elderly and knew just enough English to tell me how slow I was. The rest of the time, I'm pretty sure they were making fun of me in Vietnamese. Selling Slurpees and cigarettes for a living may be a grind, but at least my boss hassles me in a language I can understand.

 

I'm in it for the money, of course. I start at the University of British Columbia in September, and I'm determined not to take on student loans that will haunt me into my twilight years. As with any unpleasant experience, though, there have been lessons to learn. I've gotten to know an elderly Greek Keno addict who visits the store on a daily basis. He's given me tips on picking up the ladies. ("You are lucky to be young and handsome boy. When you are old like me, no woman wants you.") Many of my colleagues have interesting pasts, and at different times they've given me tips on hotwiring cars, picking locks, and dodging drug trafficking charges. If the academic life doesn't work out for me, I'm sure I'll be able to make a living as a petty criminal.

 

I'm shooting for a major in Religion, Literature, and the Arts. Any time I tell someone this, they ask me why. Sometimes I lie and say I want to join the priesthood. (This would never work in reality. I prefer beer over sacramental wine, and I have it on good authority that confessionals are strictly non-smoking areas.) What it really boils down to, I think, is stories.       

 

I understood stories long before I understood human beings. To tell the truth, I still don't understand our species - but I think there are some enlightening truths in the tales we tell. How can you understand the sad absurdity of the human race until you hear the story of the Biblical Fall? How can you appreciate our highs and lows until you learn the tale of the Crucifixion? I've been an agnostic since before I knew what the word meant, but myths and fables have always fascinated me, no matter what tradition they're from. My focus recently has been on the fundamental narrative building blocks of Western belief - hence my academic focus and the examples above. They're the easiest stories for me to understand, because they form the basis of the culture with which I am most familiar - and about which I am often most ambivalent.

 

So next year I'll be taking courses on Mesopotamian and Old Testament myths; on the history of the Christian church; on the cultures of North, West, and Eastern Europe. I'll be learning scriptural Hebrew, for the sake of my language requirement, and Critical Studies in Sexuality, for the sake of adding a little spice to the mix. And because I'm determined to tell stories as well as learn them, I'm taking Creative Writing in New Media. Paper will always have a special sensual enchantment, but the internet offers a potential for communication unprecedented in human history. As absurd as it may sound, the zeitgeists of my generation are destined to be spelled out in blogs and podcasts.

 

Oh, and I'll be moving out, as well. I've overstayed the welcome of a first-born son in his parents' house. In September I'll be leaving Vancouver Island - bucolic haven of hippies and woodsmen, an Eden of old-growth forest and carefully cultivated cannabis - and moving into residence on the UBC campus. My knowledge of campus life mostly comes from bad movies. Do students really have toga parties? Do they play wacky pranks on the aged and dignified Dean? I won't know for another six weeks. Until then, I'll be working the daily grind, packing my belongings, and saying goodbye to the home I love. All of it in preparation for the beginning of a new story.

 

Tagged with literature, summer, wage, minimum, arts, religion, university, courses, moving | Comments (6) |