What I am=what I do?

Ah, the age old question; does what I do for a living define who I am? I can joyfully answer: NO!

I have been musing about this lately because when people ask what I do, it can be hard to explain. I would prefer the odd European point of view that asking what one does for a living is, how do you say?…rude. It seems to imply (at least to the French) that I’m really saying, “how smart are you?” or “how much do you bring in every year?” It is generally accepted that it is more polite to discuss politics or religion. This is the reverse in the US (much to my general dismay) that religion is rude and “what do you do?” is friendly.

What do I do? I’m in sales. Yes, sales. This is more complicated than what I used to do. When I would say, “I’m a teacher,” people would smile with that “aren’t you so wholesome and giving?” look, evoking a cute little school mistress with sensible navy shoes and sweaters with pewter animal buttons . Or when I said “I do museum work”, I got the “isn’t that special and sophisticated” look. Now when I mention sales, people give the leather wallet in their back pocket a reassuring pat to make sure it’s still there.

So what is an average day like in the life of a garage door and entry door salesman er… woman? Well, I may visit a home that looks like this…

or like this…

and I try and appear professional and polite, keep my breath fresh and my teeth sparkly*, and act with honesty and integrity, and to wear shirts with a manly edge. (I find that most people assume I don’t know what I’m talking about because I look girly.)I try to shed the sales kind of thing by being extra not pushy. I fancy myself as sort of a consultant, but this is a glorified term when you come home a little bit, mmm…greasy after work.

My sister Rachel recently got a job as a Production Assistant for 3 movies that are filming in the Philadelphia area. Now that’s a hard job to explain. Her day may include calling stunt men or driving celebrities around without abruptly hitting the breaks. “Oh, sorry Peter Jackson, I hope you weren’t going to eat any more of that yogurt.”

She got out a book about being a “P.A.” as they’re called, and she shared tid bits of knowledge with me. Rule # 1. When you mess up don’t even think of making excuses because you’ll get fired on the spot. The writer of the book, now a director, gave an example of when she almost got fired as a P.A. It was an average day on the set and her job was to stand down river from the camera men catching fake rats as they drifted her way and keeping an eye on the 4 real rats to make sure they didn’t drown. A rat lifeguard, if you will. When she mistook a fake rat for a real one she heroically dove into the frame when the director started screaming at her. Her job was saved by simply saying, “I really messed up. It won’t happen again.” No excuses. This is considered by many as a dream job, a jump start in the entertainment industry.

Why would someone take this sort of job?, we wonder. Perhaps because life is not just about what we do, it’s about who we are and how we do what we do, and that’s all God cares about.