All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College

39
reports. Walking again to Jenna’s desk,
Daniel thanked her for helping him earlier
and told her Anthony had promised to get
back to him with maybe something positive
for the old, handicapped woman in the
city. As he walked down the stairs of the
building, Daniel even found himself trying
to write another poem, thinking suddenly
with fondness of his own home. He had an
idea to make a poem out of the fallen leaves
of the past week, and rather quickly, his run
of creativity this day abundant, regardless
of his stress, coupled a chore of September
with his supposed aging:
Brilliant, autumn noon –
Yellow, red, and gold-leafed trees.
Ah, my back sore soon!
Sadly, though, as fate would have it, as
Daniel awaited the bus to return home, to
his near despair, the day soon inexplicably
turned dark again. He had been waiting in
innocence at the bus stop at the end of the
street from his agency. Several people waited
alongside him – the usual suburban people
who like himself lived only a few miles
beyond their small city. Among them was a
man Daniel had seen often before – a small,
aggressive, rather unpleasant, intellectuallooking
man. Catching Daniel’s eye, for
some reason the man moved determinedly
through the small crowd of people toward
him, and it was soon apparent the man
meant to spend his time on the bus riding
with Daniel. Daniel cursed his fate.
“Daniel, right” the man asked, reaching
him and following Daniel up the steps of the
bus, to pay his fare immediately after him.
“Yes … ” Daniel answered, uncertain.
The man pursued him down the aisle of the
bus and promptly sat next to Daniel. He
seemed implacably intent on conversation.
“Riding the bus now Trying to save some
money” The man spoke rapidly, nervously.
“I am. With this economy, huh” The man
seemed overflowing with a strange energy.
Daniel smiled weakly. He tried to find
something to say. “I’m glad things are
getting a little better.”
The small, aggressive, intellectual, selfcentered
man raised an incredulous eyebrow
and leaned toward Daniel, apparently to
better make his argument. Daniel wondered
why this was happening to him.
“Yeah, I know they say things are getting
better. They talk about some little money
being paid back. Or they talk about a tiny
up-tick in housing sales. Or they get all bent
out of shape when the stock market goes
up.” The man leaned even closer. “Sure,
the stock market goes up. Big deal! It’s just
flimflam. They’re just taking care of each
other, and how is that really an indicator
anyway My God, but Wall Street is
unrepentant.”
Daniel tried to keep his balance. He
struggled to be polite, to be a part of this
unforeseen conversation. “A lot of people
think things are getting turned around.
Maybe not as quickly as we’d like, but all
kinds of reporters and analysts are saying
so.”
But the man looked at Daniel with great
incredulity. “Where are you getting your
information”
“Uhhh … from television … the news
and commentary shows. And from the
newspapers. Good newspapers.”
The little, aggressive man seemed to have
trouble staying in his seat. “Listen, Daniel,
I know something about economics, too.
I minored in it at college. You know,
Adam Smith, Wealth Of Nations, Keynes,
neo-Keynesian theory. I did a paper
once comparing capitalist and socialist
economics.”
Daniel felt, out of the blue, as if a part of his
destiny, he was in the middle of a diatribe.
“So let me tell you, neighbor,” the man
continued. “Nothing significant has really
happened. There are all kinds of negatives
still out there, and it is my prediction that
they will remain out there for some time.
In addition to very little real payback, in
addition to an up-tick or two in the housing
market, in addition to whatever the hell
Wall Street is doing. Take, just for instance,
next year. What happens when the stimulus
package is gone, past, caput, used up,
siphoned off, smuggled or stolen away in
some degree by the geniuses of evil I ask
you that. As they say in baseball, wait until
next year. Then with no more money, the
real reality is going to kick in, we’ll be back
to where we were, and God help us, because
there will be no billion dollars to help us
out. How much can we borrow from China
for God’s sake All China has to do is sneeze
and the good old United States of America
is history. And also how much more money
can we print We’re already printing money
like crazy. Where do you think the stimulus
billions came from No, sir, we’ve already
mortgaged off the next several decades of
our future, God help us.” The little man
looked triumphant. “And that’s the good
news.”
“What do you mean” Daniel managed to
ask him, feeling nearly overwhelmed.
The man seemed incredulous. “What do
I mean I mean who knows what else is
out there This could be only the tip of the
proverbial iceberg. I’ve heard rumors that
there’s more and more to come. This might
be just the first wave.”
When Daniel finally exited the bus, he
felt lightheaded. It was as if he had been
attacked, assailed as badly as by anything
else that day. He didn’t quite remember his
first steps of walking. He wondered if he
didn’t feel nausea.
But, then, suddenly, at the same time,
somehow he felt an overwhelming urgency
to … to rebel. To be absolutely defiant and
assert that he’d had enough. It was the most
curious thing. He simply needed to rebel.
In some kind of existential protest, Daniel
chose not to accept what the aggressive,
little man had said. Something he didn’t
quite understand fought a sense of despair,
and Daniel found himself putting down his
metaphoric foot. Who was to say what the
future would bring How could this man
know any better than anyone else what
the future would be Good God, he was
merely a neighbor. In a small town, beside
a small city, located in a huge country, in a
vastly huger world! No, no, Daniel decided,
simply asserting himself. He would not be
overcome by this man, especially after all the
struggling he had endured during the day.
Reaching the end of the first block of his
walk home, as silly as it was, he began
speaking aloud, too, aware of his own
suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 39 • spring 2011