Talkie-talkie

In the past few weeks I missed out on so many internet memes that my friends, to my extreme envy, still have the time to do/comply with/fill out/write and enjoy. Not that I’m a fan of memes–the truth is, every time I answer one of those questionnaires that get passed around by tagging, I almost always immediately delete whatever number of paragraphs I have for fear of being judged–not by people who’d get to read it without my intention of sharing it to them specifically, but mostly, to be judged by myself. Being on Facebook is performance enough. (And it’s getting more sickening because the News Feed is automatically customized so that one sees only the updates of the people she interacts with most often.) Who would I be answering the 20 questions for, really?

Here’s one meme I’d like to take part in though, for once–GOOD magazine’s 30-Day Challenge for September to Connect with People. Like I said about all the memes I’d missed out on recently, I’ve felt really alienated from literally all the people I knew before law school since I entered law school. I’d like to reconnect. It’s a bit scary ‘coz the challenge might prod me to try to talk to people I have no intention of ever talking with again, but oh well, I’ll see when I get there. Maybe it might even be therapeutic. It helps to be tres serene in case I have to bid the world goodbye a little earlier than scheduled. In Manila it’s already the 5th of September, but since it’s only Sunday noon in the U.S., I’ve only got four days to make up for. The other challenges though, I’ve managed to comply with already, quite fortuitously on the days on which they were posted.

So yeah, let’s see how this goes!

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DAY ONE: Send someone a postcard.

How timely has Challenge No. 1 come! I just got a few free postcards of the Cityscapes project which I’ve been blogging for for Goethe Institut-Manila, and since I am one who collects but does not wish to part with any of her postcards, I might as well send these new ones to my friends abroad. I regret that I’m not in touch with them more often but hopefully this tilts the scales back to equilibrium.

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DAY TWO: Have a conversation with a service employee.

Day 2 was a Friday. After a short trip to Makati where I did not participate in any conversation whatsoever, and refused to eat my first meal of the day until it was time to go back to Quezon City, I found myself in Trinoma, where service employees abound. The problem with a challenge like this, if applied to Philippine society, is that the boundaries between customer and employees are so vivid, it’s almost impossible for a friendly conversation to arise from a sales transaction. In the States, it obviously could work–store workers do not address customers as Ma’am or Sir; they certainly don’t greet them with “Good Morning Mam/Ser!” and follow them around the store. They say, “Hi! How may I help you today?” and are not hesitant to offer their take on… for example, how attractive those boots look on you. Save for the perfunctory Starbucks barista-friendliness that’s notorious worldwide, it’s one thing I admire about consumerism & capitalism in the US: employees are also people, their jobs don’t define them and the way they could interact with people who come in through the front door. (But yes, of course, like all things in the world, we are all  just prisoners of our social classes and economic systems…)

Anyway, I did talk a bit with the saleslady at Payless Shoe Store on Day Two. It was a bit disappointing though that after I’d offered really personal information, like how my feet are too small for Size 8s but too big for 7 1/2s, she would just reply in a rehearsed fashion about how it all depends on style without really coming to my assistance and picking out her own suggestions from off the shelf. She would turn, however, to her companion, a gay guy, whom she was assuring that they both have a chance of receiving incentives this month because they scored high on the customer evaluations last August. Maybe it just wasn’t my day, that day.

I also had a long-ish conversation with a Greenpeace volunteer who coaxed me into signing a membership form. It was too soon to give financial information for contributions, though, and having that fact in mind (that they really only need my donation) certainly made the conversation less enjoyable–even though in theory it was actually quite pleasant. These organizations need to think of new fundraising strategies! I wonder how much they actually make with such ambush salestalking.

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DAY THREE: Share an Old Photo with  a Friend

~Will update this later, once I’ve dug through my hard drive for really old photos.~ There’s a reason, though, why I don’t do this more often when I could–like post old photos on Facebook because they’re already in my hard drive, or because it’s really easy to scan: I don’t want to. Most of my old photos are with old friends. Emphasis on OLD.

I know, I know, that’s the point of the challenge. Will try harder.

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DAY FOUR: Ask a Relative What They Did Today

I’ll also do this later. It’ll take a lot of guts. Or I could cheat by asking the aunt who raised me and who lives with us at home. Hah.

If I have friends/readers who are also up for the 30-Day Challenge, please share your adventures with me too.

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