Once in a while a
column yanks my interest away from my normal agenda, causing my gray matter to
work overtime, engaging me at the level of “god, I never thought about that
before.”
That happened twice this
week.
First, with the Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus reflections
on graduation and her own experience. It was a grizzled reporter who commented
to her shortly after college graduation that “she couldn’t possibly make a
mistake before she was 30.”
Although I questioned her advice from the piece, I recognized
rather quickly that in the age of Tiger Moms and Helicopter Parents, the
counsel was underemphasized.
Marcus relates a recent lunch with Stanford President
John Hennessy where she asked him what worried him most about students. “Stress
is an issue,” he said. “We have kids, most of whom have never seen a grade on
their report card that had a rounded curve. . . . Everybody’s expectation is
that they’re going to the moon.” Then they encounter chemistry of another
challenge, and “they’re shellacked.”
Whether parent or recent grad, this is one you’ll want to
devour.
Second, with the
Slate blogger, Matt Malady (I guess that’s his real name and not a pseudonym) writing
in the NYTimes Magzine “About the undermining of one of civilization’s greatest
social constructs:” the simple line that we stand in at least once a day at the
coffee shop or the store.
Sadly, Malady points out that all is not well in the
world of lines. In fact, this form of social ordering seems to be going sideways.
The article reminded me of a friend of mine, a young med
student, who migrated from New York City for UMN’s medical school. After the
first week of school, while still boarding at our house, he commented with some
frustration that he’d never seen such orderliness in New York, with people lining
up for all kinds of service. “It’s German orderliness,” I said. “But you ain’t
seen nothing, yet. Before I drop you off tomorrow morning I want to take you to
the Pillsbury foyer.”
It was about 7:45am and the elevator lines snaked out of
the Pillsbury foyer into the main area with about 75 to 100 people in each line
for each of the dozen elevators. He was actually shaken. He told me that in New
York, it would have been a madhouse, rather than the quiet line of folk, standing,
reading their newspapers or even knitting, waiting for their turn at the
elevator. So much for Manhattan!
Well, I’ve never thought about some of the issues of ethics
and orderliness that Malady brought up in his article. And I fully suspect
you’ll find them intriguing also.
Enjoy!
