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(Part 2) Sept 8, 2003 "Do you think working in a gift shop is a stupid volunteer job?" my co-worker asks me. She is part joking, part despairing. "Nope," I say. "All volunteer work is important. Some especially so because the job is thankless." My co-worker speaks with a thick New Jersey accent and she looks very tough. But she has just come out ofthe Compassion-less editor's office. So she has the dazed look of someone who just made out of the middle of a twister. "She just told me the volunteers I choose to interview weren't as good as the volunteers you interviewed...she .made it sound like I'm..." But my co-worker stops talking mid-sentence because suddenly a slow moving silence comes over the room... because the editor is passing by everyone's desk........ You can see people's heads turn as she walks by their desk...and their gaze follows her like stadium full of tennis fans following the ball intently as it goes cross court. Her goal? A cookie. She picks up a sugar dusted star shape from the table where we ususally place things we've brought from a bakery or home... Someone brought in cookies today and the Compassionn-less editor is sniffing them like a dog on the hunt. In fact, she is even wearing a rather hunt-like outfit today. "Who brought these in?" she barks. We squelsh smiles. "Are they real cookies or the kind you fake just for people who can't handle sugar? I think they are the fake kind for diabetics." Before anyone answers, she eats one of them whole and walks back into her office with a large, stuffed cheek and powder on her nose. "Do you think if we accidentaly spilled water on her she would melt?" whispers the meek receptionist after the door is shut and the typing and casual talk resumes. I go back to typing my article. The day before, we all were asked to pitch ideas of what kind of interesting volunteers we could each interview I pitched several ideas. I'd asked someone who I knew would be a wonderful interview. The editor loved the idea and the article turned out great because the woman was remarkable. But out of last minute deadline pressure I was going to interview someone that I knew sould make for a less than stellar interview. "Who is it you're interviewing?" The editor barked at me. "Um, well..I am interviewing an unknown, a regular person. ....um...just a Sunday school teacher," I said, wincing like when you KNOW a baseball is about to smack you hard in the face. "Your plan is to bore the readers to death?" was her response. But the deadline was quickly approaching, no one else had returned calls, so I called the Sunday school teacher... And guess what? Her voice was unremarkable. But I was surprised by her after only a few questions.... After I was done with the article, and after I I handed it in...although it is unusual... a fellow reporter started reading it out loud in the news room. I didn't know why. She read that the woman had left the corporate world behind....when she realized through volunteer work, that her calling was to work with children...that her daily life was helping people..though she didn't even know it... It all began when her daughter had a terrible struggle in Sunday school becuase of an unkind teacher. She said she rushed right into the principal's office and said, "Give me a class. I am going to show the other teachers what compassion is." She got a class and taught them, but at the end of the year she cried and felt terrible about leaving the kids. So she asked the principal if she could be moved each year to follow the same class. The principal went with it. So year after year she taught the same group of kids and became close to them.....encouraging them....being a role model. She said when it came time for them to be confirmed some kids hadn't asked their sponsors yet though it was getting close to time for the confirmation. She urged them to hurry up. One girl asked advice because she was nervous about asking... but she said it would be definately worth asking ....because the person she wanted had a huge impact on her life.... "The person who has had the most impact in my life is you," the girl said. The woman said it made her cry. She said she was both flattered and humbled at the same time. At this point, my co-worker surprised me greatly because she stopped reading the article out loud and she said, "Some people DO change your life." And she added,"Chris...this is you. For us. Here. The person who has impact on us." The co-workers around me smile at me...but then the door clicked open and the Compassion-less editor stepped out among us like Murphy Brown. "Chris, about the story about the Sunday School volunteer..." Silence. Then she mumbled something. "What?" I asked. The editor repeated the mumble. "I couldn't hear you," my co-worker who had diabetes said, smiling a smile that meant she DID hear it and wanted to enjoy hearing the editor repeat it again. "It could be you...Chris....the story could be about you...you make a difference." There was total silence in the room. It was soooo hard not to laugh.It was so unexpected coming from her. Know what the editor said next? "You all do. It's why I brought in cookies." Click. The door shut behind her as she went into her office. "SHE brought in COOKIES???" whispered the receptionist. "Okay, who spilled water on her? She's definately in meltdown," the entertainment reporter said. "No, she's softening,"said the Culture- reporter. "Yeah," whispered the receptionist..."But do we have to eat the cookies she sniffed?" "Oh, my God it's like the grinch in Whosville..next thing ya know..she will be cheeful and singing...this is too weird ..........." Who knows...maybe I will have to think of a new name for her...hmmm...I will let ya know tomorrow if I think of one. ------------ About the author: Chrissa Falcon is a newspaper reporter in the New York Metropolitan Area. Chrissa may be reached at ChrisFalconColumn@hotmail.com Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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