Ailantha
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Conversation On A Plane

8/22/2014

0 Comments

 
    Yesterday I arrived in  Portland, Oregon for a visit with my sister, Romaine.  (Sorry this post is so late - 3 hour time difference, right?).
    Anyway, I had a lay over in Los Angeles and on my  Los Angeles - Portland flight I ended up seated next to a stocky, shave-headed  young guy dressed in a blue checked shirt and khakis who started up a conversation as soon as I sat down. 
    He asked me, in a more serious tone than one is accustomed to being asked by a stranger on a plane, how I was doing today.

     I gave him the  stock standard response/follow-up that I was fine, thanks, how was he?
    The words poured out of him.  He'd missed his early morning flight to Portland for a job interview because he'd had to take his 11-year son to the doctor with a fever, sore throat and ear ache,  and now he was worried that it would be held against him that he'd be showing up half a day late for his interview.  Man, he just couldn't believe it.

    I asked him if he'd called and told his interviewer his situation.  He had.  And how, I asked him, did his interviewer respond?
    "Eh, it didn't seem to bother him,"  the man said, a slight nervous quiver to his voice, "he said to just catch the next flight out.  But I don't know how this will affect their decision to hire me." 
    I told the man that of course it shouldn't affect their decision, that the people involved in the interview process probably had children of their own and so they would understand.  After all, he couldn't leave his sick son.  I asked him about the job he was interviewing for.
     "Regional sales," he said.  He had deep brown eyes which he kept focused on me while he spoke with sincere intensity, telling me  that he was 36 years old, that he'd been in sales since he was 18, had started selling Kirby vacuum cleaners and had sold a lot of different things since: car parts, food service supplies, construction equipment, janitorial supplies.  But this job that he was interviewing for today, this was going to be his big break, his chance to really make it.  There would be potential for him to move up in this company.
    I asked him what this job would involve selling.
    "Steel ball bearings,"   he said. 
    I asked him if he knew
a lot about steel ball bearings.

    "Nah.  If they want me they'll teach me what I need to know. Then I'll go out and sell it."
    He told me that he loved being in sales.  His eyes lit up as he told me that, since he worked on commission, he woke up every day feeling like the sky's the limit.  He spoke with such enthusiasm and made a career in sales sound so appealing that as he spoke I could almost see myself hopping out of bed every morning to go out and sell ball bearings or janitorial supplies.
   
In fact he reminded me a little of my son-in-law Justin. (But of course not as handsome!).

Picture
                                                                    Maria and Justin

    He told me that after high school he'd had no desire to hit any more books.  He wanted to go out and get started.  I expect he meant get started on life.
    And today was his big chance.  But he feared he might have already blown it.
    I told him again that anybody with children would  understand that he had to take care of his sick son first.  It's what anybody would do.
    He then talked about his son, his only child, what a good kid the boy was, a great kid.  He didn't like sports, but that was okay by his father, he didn't have to like sports.
    I agreed  and shared my opinion that in this country children are pushed to do too much sports too soon to the point where they're doing damage to their young bodies and sometimes  their young minds.
    Seeing that he didn't need to be on the defensive about his son's indifference to sports, he talked with pride about what a good student his son was,  he was in 6th grade now,  how much he loved to read, how all the boy ever wanted to do was read.   Then his expression turned serious. He looked away from me and said softly, "Man, I hope I get this job."   
    I, too, sincerely hope that he got the job.  Because I liked him.  And I liked his book-reading, unathletic son whom I never met and for whose sake this man obviously so badly wanted this job; and because of whom he now feared he might not get it.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    "Hail Mary"
    by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    https://www.amzn.com/1684334888

    Picture
    "Equal And Opposite Reactions"
     by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
    or from
    The Book Loft
    of German Village,
    Columbus, Ohio
    Picture
    Or check it out at the Columbus Metropolitan Library
    Picture

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    RSS Feed

    I am a traveler just visiting this planet and reporting various and sundry observations,
    hopefully of interest to my fellow travelers.

    Categories

    All


























































































Proudly powered by Weebly