The American Way

I work in a not so upstanding part of Salt Lake as I have mentioned before. In case you have any doubt about it, let me just say, my co-worker was propositioned just outside our office last week. And when I say "propositioned" I don’t mean to go and get an ice cream cone at the local Dairy Queen. She was propositioned for a...well you know. I guess after that she is definitely going to rethink wearing a tube top, and thigh high boots to work.

But I guess I just don’t see all the negativity that some of my co-workers see. I look around the neighborhood where I work and see a network of resourceful individuals who are trying to pull themselves out of the toilet, which is their lives.

For example, I went for my afternoon walk yesterday and I saw proof that there are still some good people out there trying to live the American dream.

On my walks I pass by this little house on the corner where two men, whose names I don’t know, but who I like to call Lowell and Joe-Joe, sit out in their lawn chairs on their porch. I don’t know if they have jobs because they sit outside just chatting away, for what seems to be most of the afternoon.

I would worry about them but they see to have a lot of friends who stop by at all hours of the day. The funny thing, that I don’t really understand, is that their friends don’t seem to stay long and talk to Lowell and Joe-Joe because they leave their cars running. They go inside together and within a few minutes they leave with little baggies filled with what must be, as far as I can tell, Avon potpourri or Am Way powered sugar.

I am so happy to live in a country where people, like Lowell and Joe-Joe, are pulling themselves out of poverty by really tapping into some good old fashion multi-level marketing.

What’s more American than that?