Wednesday, May 2, 2012

How the Other Half Lives

As part of my J-O-B, I get to travel to Jr High and Middle Schools and give presentations on college readiness, scholarships, and how students can make their life better through higher education. Noble stuff I tell you.

Today, I went to one such Middle School in an area I've never visited. It was south of Salt Lake, and only slightly south point of the mountain and very very very East. That's all you're getting from me as to location. I'm not a fool... I also enjoy being employed.

THAT said, it was an absolutely gorgeous drive this yonder early morning - and as I drew nearer my destination - I saw a lot of the following and was struck with awe. I'm pretty sure I could have been pulled over for distracted driving as I gawked at my surroundings. What do these people DO?!?!




I wish I could say I greatly exaggerate with those pictures - but I only slightly exaggerate for effect. Honestly, the houses in this area were immaculate. The yards pristine! I vocally "ooo'ed" and "aww'ed" at every turn. I have never imagined myself in an incredibly verbose house - but after driving through these neighborhoods, I must admit I wondered how it would be to live like the other half.

There was also a lot of this...



Talk about horse power. Ba dum chi!

And unfortunately, I also noticed that any of this:




Were doing this.



And that jolted me back to my own reality of wanting my kids to grow up in a diverse community with different backgrounds, understandings, and cultures. No castle on a hill is worth a monochromatic upbringing in my mind. And of course, the commentary as to WHY this blatant social discrepancy exists is yet another conversation for another time. Can't there be diversity and castles on a hill? Why do only certain populations own the overwhelming majority of castles in this area? I guess I forgot my blinders on this journey. Then again, I was there for a total of 3 hours so I could have missed something (shaking head no).

That is all.

3 comments:

Just a thought... said...

I'm embarrassed to admit that we too have someone else mowing our lawn now, but only because our kids have all grown up and moved away. Believe me, we mowed and edged plenty before they were old enough to be blessed with that responsibility and it was in the shimmering heat waves of the Phoenix sun; almost to the point of collapse from heat exhaustion. (Lucky for them they weren't old enough to mow the lawn until we moved to more temperate climates; Raleigh, Tulsa and Bartlesville. But alas ...we are now too old and wimpy to manage the Houston heat and humidity so our diversity comes from a weekly visit from the lawn guys. I love those guys!

Sumiko said...

I think of the same question all the time, driving around the south east bench especially. In my experience, some people are uncomfortable or self conscious interacting with people of a different race or ethnicity, so they tend to avoid the situation entirely. Self-selecting to live in a place like that is often one easy way to do so, for the most part.

Andrea Jolene said...

Ha ha! Old wimpys get a pass ;) and we probably would welcome some lawn guys too. I feel like our backyard swallows whole cats.