I should make this brief today because I have to put on the finishing touches to the manuscript I am mailing out for a silly contest.
After ballet class, I met with my boss. I quite like my boss and my job, but it is occurring to me that I need to be smarter with this gig. I am putting a great deal of effort into it, which has a lot of payoff for me personally. But at the same time, I notice that the community is not really doing its part for me. I am underpaid.
Which shouldn’t matter to the guy who says money isn’t real, right?
But I think it says something about the priorities of the community I work for. When I say I am underpaid, I mean that factoring in my skills, experience and training, any pay scale I have seen says I should be making quite a bit more money.
I can’t even get my community to address the pay scale.
My boss has been working on an Human Resources committee but it’s not off the ground.
In addition to the lack of respect I think this kind of thing means in our money based way of thinking, Eileen and I do struggle with money. I am a sort of a classic struggling music guy whose income is pretty low. I struggle with other people who don’t want to pay me what I am pretty sure my efforts are worth. For example, the Grand Haven High School teacher who offered me half of what she eventually said she would pay me to accompany students. She only raised her price when I refused to work for such low pay. Also, I am accompanying a violist at the Instrumental Solo and Ensemble tomorrow. Another student called and inquired about using me as an accompanist. His band director recommended me. I told him my fee was $75. I never heard back from him and the festival is tomorrow. I can’t help but suspect that his family thought that was too much.
Oy.
Of course when the plumber came and fixed my toilet, his labor was much more than that. I don’t begrudge him his wage. I just wish people understood my work as worthy of hire.
Poor me, eh?
Anyway, I spent most of my time with my boss yesterday advising her on some matters and recommending different hymns and service music for her to consider for the upcoming season of Lent. I also sent her an email which briefly gave an over view of the upcoming readings for Lent, as well as reviewed with her what we did last year.
It occurs to me that I do well at my job. Frustrating that I remain invisible in so many places in my life.
But not that frustrating, fuck the duck. I still know how lucky I am to have my family and my music.
The trio had a good rehearsal and my colleagues enjoyed reading through one of the Haydn trios that Charles Rosen says are some of his best work. We decided to read through another of the trios Rosen has singled out next week. Eventually we will learn one. But the reading through is lots of fun.
And my violinist has agreed to pick a Bach violin sonata to learn. If she does this, I will have motivation to work on my harpsichord. I love the Bach solo sonatas.
After rehearsal I came home and exercised and cooked.
I went a little nuts with cooking:
Herb Cheese Muffins,
Bacon wrapped broiled tilapia,
stylin’ steak fries,
corn,
artichoke hearts
and blueberry pie.
All of this from what we have on hand the day before I do grocery shopping.
Not bad. And most of the recipes were low fat. And tasty.
Like I say, life is good.
In response to an earlier post..
“Still haven’t gotten around to listening to the State of the Union, but do plan to. What did you think? Also, how does WordPress suck?”
I thought the presidents speech was very centrist in nature which most likely pissed off liberals and somewhat appeased conservatives. His emphasis on business language was very evident throughout the speech which i am sure many in the d-party did not like at all. terms like “competitive” and “invest” seemed to not fit with his parties idealogical foundations, but rather sounded more so like a GOP business address. I also thought the tea parties response from Bachmann was ridiculous and shallow. I still do not know what to make of this party.
WordPress seems to suck in that almost every time i try to post something i get error messages regardless of what computer i am using. i enjoy reading your blog, but wordpress seems clunky. Although this is coming from a gen x’r who shares traits such as impatience for technology that is slow and constantly upgrading itself.
I also complain about other web stuff so dont take it too personally. I am not a fan of facebook as this monster seems to have the capacity to wreck computers as well. i dont let anyone touch my laptop since i got it fixed and will not even venture anywhere near facebook with it.
Enough.
David
I agree that Obama’s SOTU seemed centrist. I would go further and say a reasonable and idealistic proposal for ways to begin to govern an ungovernable nation. On the other hand I detect equal disapproval in the extreme left and right in their response. But I don’t watch tv news very much at all, so I don’t know how the talking heads responded. Having read Obama’s book, “Audacity of Hope,” he continues to make sense to me even when I sometimes disagree with the way he is trying to govern. It seems to me that the political rancor that Obama and a few others are seeking to calm down became more extreme in the wake of 9/11. This has always seemed a mild reaction to me, because I expected the country to swing even further the right than it has. I didn’t listen to Michelle Bachmann. Do you think I should? My impression of the Tea Party is that the people who are identifying with this movement are being quickly exploited by others and any clear platform or purpose co-opted so far.
Sorry WordPress is so clunky. I am terrified of upgrading because last time I did I got entirely locked out of my web site. It was only with Elizabeth’s help that I got restarted. Right now I’m trying to figure out how to renew my domain name which will be expiring in a few weeks. It was so long ago that I purchased it that I don’t have the information on how to do this (passwords) at my fingertips. So maybe the whole deal will go down in flames if I can’t figure it out. Yikes!
In the meantime, thanks for reading my silly blog from time to time. Beside my own weird and perverted needs, you and Elizabeth and Sarah are main reasons I do it.
I comment not as a critique, but as an observation. The President is running for reelection. So, he is sort of moving in words to the center. He is not a leader, however. He may acquire that trait,but it is often difficult when you have not really lead anything before. Not a criticism, just an observation.
I always like reading David’s comments. He was just a baby when I saw him last. And it is always fun for me to read about you and your family. I do read your blog every day.
I am puzzled that you and I can see Obama so differently. It must be that we understand leadership differently. I would be curious who you think a good leader is right now on the political scene and what qualities in the person lead you to that response. I think Obama is trying to be a good leader because he presents a calm presence in the face of hysteria, articulates an intelligent vision, and gets things done (like get elected for one thing… “Poppy” Bush was famously quoted as once replying when he faced private criticism: “If you’re so smart, how come I’m president.” Heh. I like that.)
I also think he is trying to change the conversation in our public life. This is something that George Bush said he wanted to do in the 2000 presidential campaign. I think the circumstances of the presidency and 9/11 overwhelmed him and this wasn’t possible.
My understandings of leadership are colored by being a leader myself and having leaders in my family and also by an understanding of how I see human system psychology working right now in the USA. Undifferentiated emotional reaction is common; listening, analyzing and responding with intelligent informed compassion, not so much. Rabbi Freedman (who I admit has strongly influenced me…. he was a student of Murray Bowen who founded family systems theory) says that when you lead and differentiate yourself, people will respond with a strong negative reaction. This negative reaction is sometimes an indication of leadership. This negative field in all walks of life in the US makes leading difficult and unattractive.
I experience this all the time in church work. As a leader, when I am routinely confronted with people’s unregulated behavior (emotional over-reactions and boundary issues), I see it as my responsibility to try to help the situation be constructive and respectful at best and at the least keep my own responses non-anxious and unprovocative. I have worked with many difficult unhappy people in church life and this is how I see what I try to do when I interact with them.
Of course this is all micro stuff, which is how I tend to see life. Anyway, thanks for reading and responding, dude.
Leadership and management are different issues. One may be a good manager, but not necessarily a good leader. And leadership does not necessarily mean being a good manager.
The media is tilted so far to one side that it is difficult to assess. They have an agenda which must be understood by the receiver to evaluate their reporting. As a society, we have common beliefs and expectations of living together, but the idea that the state is above the individual is wrong headed. The individual is our society and the formation of institutions which support that have become muted. The state is not responsible for the individual. The individual is responsible for the state. This idea that the state is better able to manage people’s lives has been a focus of education for a very long time. People have been educated in ways that support the state and does not allow “Critical thinking skills”. And this is the problem our society faces today, the ability to assess information. There is more of it and less time to assess.