A Word With Marty: "ROTARY" (and similar organizations like Kiwanis and ...

Days of Our Work Lives: An unvarnished look at work today: Part II: Susan's Saga. Episode 4: Rotary

Days of Our Work Lives

Part II: Susan's Saga 

Episode 4: Rotary

In the previous episode, Susan followed her career counselor's advice to "explore new vistas," although she did it with perhaps a bit too much vigor: everything from yoga to hip-hop dancing, spiritual retreat to whitewater rafting. She then decided she might do better with a different kind of exploration: She joined Rotary.

For the uninitiated, Rotary is not the group that wears fezzes or conducts secret rituals involving dead-language mumbo-jumbo. It's as mainstream as America gets: mainly a bunch of middle-middle-class people, disproportionately small business owners, who get together every week or two for breakfast or lunch, fun fundraisers and--although it's officially discouraged as tainting of its charitable mission--to make business and career connections.

There are 34,000 Rotary clubs, 6,000 in the U.S. There even was one in Sage River, which is the one Susan joined or, more accurately, was invited to join. Not just anyone can get into Rotary--you have to be sponsored. Fortunately, her yoga teacher was a member. Susan thought, "See, taking yoga may have been good for my career after all!" 

Every two weeks, her Rotary club meets for lunch, and Rotarians eat like the mainstream Americans they are. No "garden salad, dressing on the side and a sparkling water with a wedge of lime." More likely, it's chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, a coke, and apple pie for dessert. When Rotarians say they're watching their weight, it usually means they'll skip the a la mode...for today. 

As she waited in the buffet line, she mused, "Is it really better for restaurants to throw out the mountains of leftover buffet food than to give it to the poor? Wouldn't that likely do far more good than harm?"

Wanting to fit in, as Susan moved through the buffet, she joined the contest to see who could fit the most calories on a plate. She figured that by the time the waitress came by to remove plates, the porkers wouldn't notice that two-thirds was left on hers.

Susan was equally planful in deciding where to sit. "No, not at that table where 60-year-olds would be seen as "young uns." Nor at the one with Gen Z'ers--they're not likely to have career connections. Then she spotted a table with mainly midlifers and an empty seat, and she and her 3,000-calorie plate headed for it like someone trying to get the last good seat in a movie theater without looking like she's trying too hard. 

Week after week, Rotary conversation never went further than Huskies football, kitchen recipes, or if she was lucky, who was sleeping with whom. It was in such a conversation when, Rory, who owned the ag supply store in town, turned to her and said, "Of course, that's not something you would do." Susan blushed and deliberately pursed her lips dismissively, as a new widow should. But privately, she welcomed the flirtation, even from a Joe Sixpack, maybe especially from a Joe Sixpack. 

More weeks passed and Susan deliberately didn't sit at Rory's table. But one time, Rory sat down at her table, right next to her. And as they were getting up to leave, he said, "I could use a little help at the store. Might you be interested?" 

"I'm working at the school." 

"Not on Saturdays. How about a half day on Saturdays? Just greet the customers, help 'em if you can, answer the phone, a little paperwork, almost nothing on the computer."

She thought, "'Almost nothing on the computer.' Amazing how that negates the other negatives: a guy trying to flirt with me a new widow, a clerk job, at a fertilizer store?"  

She weakened: "I don't think so." 

"Try it one Saturday. If you're not completely satisfied, we'll refund your money. No questions asked."

"And he's funny," she thought.

"Okay, one Saturday."

"I think things are gonna work out just fine." And he stared into her eyes. 

The next episode is HERE.

Days of Our Work Lives: An unvarnished look at work today: Part II: Susan's Saga. Episode 3: Explorations

Days of Our Work Lives

Part II: Susan's Saga 

EPISODE 3 Explorations

In the previous episode,  Susan's career counselor gave her a common-sense but welcomed homework assignment: explore. "Planned serendipity," the counselor called it.

That's just what Susan was ready for, so she dove in. First, it was yoga. Or I should say, first she bought a $165 Lululemon yoga outfit, $68 yoga mat, and---I'm not kidding--$38 yoga towel. But while the mountain and fighter poses were fine, even the supposedly easy dog-bending-down pose was, well, infelicitous to her long-dormant body. "I can't believe some of them--They're like Cirque du Soleil contortionists." And yoga as a chance to do career networking? Not exactly: All of her classmates seemed less oriented to career than to the upward-facing-dog pose, and the conversation never got more career-related than which bodyworker to hire to heal them from yoga.

But Susan liked being physical, albeit a little less so, so she signed up for a hip-hop dancing class. But her hop wasn't so hip and conversation was impossible in the next-door lounge. Susan thought, "Twenty minutes in here and you're deaf. Maybe the owner is an audiologist trying to drum up some business."

Okay, so maybe that was the wrong kind of dancing. Figuring she'd merge her dancing desire with her spiritual searching, she went on a retreat, the highlight of which was moonlight nude shamanic dancing. She couldn't make herself take her clothes off. Hell, she couldn't even make herself stop laughing as they waved sage brush and incense as their bodies swayed and bounced in the moonlight.

Working on Rent with the kids in the middle school kept her grounded, although there was one kid she wanted to pillory. Right before Easter vacation, that kid decided he was going to try to climb up the set---He made it halfway up before the canvas tore, right in the middle of the Empire State Building. 

She felt like resurrecting him but instead attempted an Easter vacation rebirth or at least rejuvenation on a whitewater rafting trip in Costa Rica. Should she go on the Class II, Class III, or most challenging Class IV? She decided to be brave---and fell out of the boat, bobbing down the river. Thank God for a branch that stuck out. She grabbed on just before she would have been in need of resurrection. 

Back in Sage River, Susan sat by the fire, reflecting on her explorations and realized she needed a different sort of exploration. So she joined Rotary.

The next episode is posted HERE.