Cronies and Ms. Thang

Tally-ho, friends! Well, it's Monday, and it's Monday, if you know what I mean. "I love a parade!" I don't even know what made me blurt that out inside my head, but I blurted it out in my head, so I blurt those sort of nonsensical things down in writing when that happens - lucky you.

So, first, I just want to say thank you to anyone nice whose been nice enough to extend niceness to us. We like nice. We could get used to nice, though we've gotten so accustomed to mean. Today's been strange. For instance, there's fire outside and you know how that makes for a blurry, reddish hue to the sunset? Well, that's how it looks outside, and then there's that smoky smell to the air, as though someone got carried away with a controlled burn: That's how the day has been - a little blurry and unexpected.

Had a long-time supplier cancel us today, the same supplier that signed an ambiguous, cautious statement supporting Mim's version of things - the statement they surprised the judge last week in mediation. In fact, they signed that statement on the same date our cancellation notice was written. Coincidental, huh?

The supplier and Mim are long-time friends. They worked at some previous job together and have known each other for twenty plus years. We've found that there's a lot of cronyism in the world. Never even really knew what that word meant until recently. Apparently, it means that like-minded, unethical people stick together, thick as thieves. Sometimes literally.

I tell you this has been a season of learning about stuff like that. For instance, there was one week I was in a Christian setting, for which a lady said to me, "Don't you know who I am?" I knew that everyone tip-toed around her with a strange and eerie reverence, but little else. Seriously, I don't know who many people are, so that statement was lost on me. I admitted that I didn't know her. That was the wrong answer. When someone asks you a question like that, be sure and learn from my mistake. I'm not encouraging you to lie, but maybe smidge the truth a bit, by saying something like, "Maybe," or "I think so," because you may have heard of them and just forgotten.

Then, that same week in a non-Christian setting someone asked me if I knew of their quasi celebrity friend, and this time (God forgive me) I lied. "Oh," I said, trying to sound very impressed. "Yes, I think I do know them." Then, I immediately googled that person as soon as I got home. And, no, I didn't know them, but was relieved to find them well-described on wikipedia.

Experienced this crony thing somewhere the kids had gone for tutoring in addition to our home schooling. There was a girl there just barely out of high school herself, teaching because her relatives were in charge of the center. Never mind that that girl was a toxic young thing who appeared to hate children, knew nothing of the subject she was teaching, and ridiculed me when I asked to help her out, because she was teaching writing and that's specifically what my degree pertains to. She even told me that her eye-rolling was her way of processing what I was saying. Seemed weird, but everyone processes differently I thought.

Can I just spell that scenario out for you, because it is rich I tell you, rich. She was holding a grande Starbucks, peering over the lid at me. As usual, I blabbered on, because frankly her caustic nineteen year old intimidation tactics took me right back to high school wherein I felt scared by mean girls like her. As I tried to convince her to give me a shot at this writing thing, she said, "Give me what you have. I'll look over it, and see if I approve." "Yes, Ms. Thang, I'll give you that right a way, right away!" I turned and tripped over my own club foot and headed back to the car to reconsider why I'd never be popular.

To top that off, no one even thought it was bad taste when Ms. Thang posted a scantily-clothed picture of herself in fish-net stockings and a corsetty thing, and gave a bunch of kids directions to her site. Prude, I'm not, but c'mon! We unpopular girls hate when all the popular girls do things like that. Afterall, my favorite Halloween costume I ever owned was Betsy Ross. There is nothing the least bit slutty about Betsy Ross, and it's my guess that Ms. Thang doesn't even know who Betsy Ross is!

Soooo, (heavy sigh) I'm just saying that the old crony thing is alive and well. I am being rolled by it every day. For some strange reason, it knocks me off my geeky seat every time I experience it. You can expect people to do the right thing, because it's the right thing, but more often than not, I think people do the thing that garners them the most in the long run: Not everyone, but lots.

Exodus 23:3
"...and do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawuit."

I know what you're thinking and no! I did not make that up! I really think the next one's a dandy too:

Leviticus 19:15 "Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly."

It's almost spooky, don't you think? It's like God knew what our natural inclination would be.