I do my best thinking while watching TV, or so I think.  I was watching Desperate Housewives last night–don’t laugh at me–when I was hit with the concept of the “parking space society” as I call it.  I was also receiving some mental stimulation from The Long Winters, which are a band.  I was struggling with the fact that I am supposed to get a job so I can earn money and pay for things.  However, I am not qualified for most jobs–having not completed much of college, I have very little in the line of marketable skills.  This means that any job I will get, will probably be boring, monotonous, and not too my liking.  Back to the parking space society thougth.

Eva Longoria on Desperate Housewives has been burdened with her newly blind husband.  With out getting into too much back story, she is used to being rich and getting her way all the time.  However, now she is poor and has to tend to her husbands most basic needs because he can no longer see.  One day she decides to take him on her errands.  She visits this place and that place leaving him in the car on the premise that she will be right back and can do things faster than he can because he is blind.  After this situation reoccurs about three times, he gets bored just sitting in the car and wanders off; asking some kid to take him to get some food.  When Eva Longoria comes out to find her husband gone, she freaks.  Then as soon as she finds him, someone starts harassing her about parking in a handicapped spot.  She clearly isn’t, but she says it is for her husband.  At this point her husband starts to reprimand her.  In return she says she is poor, incredably busy, and has a blind husband to take care of.  If she can get a handicapped parking spot because of that, she is going to take it.

My point is not to go get yourself a handicapped parking voucher, but to look into this situation.  Do you see the parking space society?  Everyone is supposed to fit into a standard square.  People who are different get the better spaces, whether it be that they are handicapped, rich, famous, or have just been at a company for a long time and now have a space near the door.  Whatever it may be, I don’t like it.  I don’t like the concept that we as a society should all fit into the same space.  We are channeled and driven towards a common goal–to make money for a company.  Why?  Why would I want to spend my time working for something that is not going to recognize me?  Why should I conform to a society where I park in a rectangle, buy my food at a grocery store, listen to the popular music and wear the fashionable clothes?

On a personal note, I don’t want a job that requires me to do the same things over and over again.  A job that is constraining is not beneficial to either myself or whatever company I will inevitably have to work for.  I will not do my best work in a forced, focused, path.  For me a job needs to do for things:

1. A job should teach you something new; constantly.
2. A job should let you earn money.
3. A job should constantly change environments; this promotes the first thought.
4. A job should be fun; if you don’t enjoy it, it’s not worth having.

Therefore, I urge you not to give into this parking space society.  Challenge the norm and do not conform completely to the ways of the system or you will be lost in it.  If you find yourself already lost in the system, make a plan to get out, or at least partially remove yourself.  Back out, pull out, push the cars, out of the way, do whatever you have to, so you don’t become trapped in the parking space society.  Park where you want.

Tags: , eva longoria, Idea, job, money, society, Thought

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 10:53 am and is filed under Thought. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.