INVISIBLE WOMAN

"Excuse me, pardon me, I need to shift the balls" whispering amusedly, weaving my way through the crowd to stir the cranberry meatballs.  Die your hair brown. Blonde is far too conspicuous. Dress in all black, nondescript. No lipstick. Trade in your lawyer suit and heels, and your laptop, oh and large desk, with the model cased bugatti veyron, and the professionally matted and framed attorney's license and law degree (and also trade in the heart palpitations, sweaty palms, churning stomach, ringing phone, paper pushing, client assuaging, judge bashings...) Carry a tray filled with chicken salad sandwiches into the expansive granite counter topped kitchen, dining, bar, pool table window walled view of resort pool and fire pit, filled with pearly white smiling ladies in belted dresses, heels, men in blazers, large pearl or diamond studded earrings, and display the sandwiches, smile meekly (don't let them see the flash of sparkle delight in my eye.)  We are here to raise large sums of money for a charity. I stand among professionals, my peers, in the shadows. Making appearances only to whisk away an empty wine glass, re-fill the veggie tray, and the chips. 

Early Bird Catering

This is a game I'm playing. (A game as in the proverbial "making lemonade.")The fly on the wall. Listen, watch, make mental notes (all while baking, cooking, and serving some seriously delicious and wonderful arrays of foods---shout out to Early Bird Catering!) on what it means to be a human in the room among humans in the united states, the country of equality. Wondering, is human dignity inherent. Or is human dignity directly derived from one's work. You are human, and more human or less human, depending on your title. Less human--serving veggie dip. More human--serving subpoenas. (unemployed? eh. you may not be human at all.) (independently wealthy? oh! you may be a demi-god.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JDzlhW3XTM 

"I wanna be a man, mancub

And stroll right into town
And be just like the other men
I'm tired of monkeyin' around!Oh, oobee doo

I wanna be like you
I wanna walk like you
Talk like you, too
You'll see it's true
An ape like me
Can learn to be human too "

--from the Jungle Book, Louis Prima.

Ever notice how the first line in a bio at the end of an article usually reads "Sally Salinas IS _________", the blank being some sort of title related to work..."George Amos is CEO of such and such" "Andrea Lowes is Marketing Manager of  so and so" "Jerry Saver is a Senior Partner at such and such"....And we need to know this first, so we can weigh the articles veracity against these credentials.  We might read and think "what is he talking about. boring. huh? lame." But if we see he's a high up professional doing something awesome for some company somewhere, we might change our tune. "wow, i'm an idiot. he really does know what he's talking about. he has 47 years of experience hiding funds and firing the lowlies." 

So, at the fundraiser, as "the help" I say for example, "I think Arkansas' vote will be the determining factor in this presidential election." I'm disregarded as a simpleton. But, if I offered the same bit of political genius analysis in my suit, heels, hair swept up to classy perfection, diamonds sparkling...Well, I'd still be every bit a buffoon, only I would probably have enough sway to confuse a few people, make them wonder if I maybe, just maybe, had some inside info they needed to find out.