Waiter Detox Day 5
There is no better day that today.
There has never been an America greater than there is right now.
There has never been smarter, more compassionate people than those
who live today. The pop music has never been better, more interesting
nor has there ever been more variety and better musicianship. Food
tastes better. In fact, fuck anyone who thinks ‘those were the days’
because, let’s face it, these are the days.
And if this is not the case, then there
is nothing wrong with the world at large, there is only the problem
with the individual, the person who looks back at some remote time
and thinks that things were better then.
What about COVID? What about global
warming? What about bipolorsian politics? What about the insidious
and ubiquitous algorithms that are ruling and shaping our lives? Yes,
those things are bad, but we’ve had to deal with all sorts of fucked
up societal issues and problems ever since society began. I do,
however, feel very bad about global warming and I will truly miss a
peaceful planet, but that is another story for another time.
What I’m really trying to focus on is
the nostalgia that forms the ideas inside of people.
It never ceased to amaze me during my
21 years in the service industry how many times in the course of a
single day that I was forced into that musical loop of Fleetwood Mac,
The Rolling Stones and The Eagles. Musical complacency. Remember how
I mentioned the hatred I feel when I look into a befuddled baby
boomer’s face? Why am I still forced to listen to the music they
listened to when they were young? Hell, I come from the 1970s, and I
remember Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles on the radio back then when
their music was new, and they weren’t that great then. What makes
things worse is when I’m in a room filled with people all younger
than me and we’re still listening to the fucking Eagles. And once
when I was talking to young people and they were excited to go see an
Eagles cover band. They only thing worse than The Eagles has to be
the tribute band.
I’ve become very attracted to the idea
of having younger friends these last few years. They are good to have
only for nothing more than life hasn’t jaded them yet. They are fun
to talk to and I love to ask them what music they’re into, what books
they read and their opinions about things. They don’t feel all
sullied up with nostalgia. Ancient history for them were the events
of last Tuesday. What matters to them are the things that should
matter, the here and now.
As I’ve gotten older and remained as
long as I did in the restaurant business, one thing really stand out
to me, and that is how I was able to be so nice and so compassionate
to those I would otherwise avert my eyes from while walking on the
streets. I’ve had to be part of all sorts of conversations about
republican vs democrat, hometown sports teams vs everyone else’s
hometown sports teams, this great restaurant or bar that I would
never know because they closed years ago, or the constant complaint
about the overpriced drinks or food I was serving. It was very
tiresome. And all the while Fucking Fleetwood Mac on repeat on the
sound system. I always wanted to tell these people, ‘fuck you and
your political party, sports team or church because organized things
are for group-think losers. If you don’t like the price of drinks and
food, go by a flux capacitor and go back to the 1976 and in the words
of this same fucking song, you can go your own way.’ But
I never said a word. I just wanted the tip.
It’s
over now. It’s not nostalgia I want when I think of all those years.
It’s not that I want the time or the conversation back. I don’t want
retribution. I used to tell people that the service industry is a
great place to be only because it was the most amount of money I
could earn with the least amount of time and effort. Of course, I
worked in very, very expensive restaurants, and I know that the
garden variety Olive Garden server probably does not make what I
made. I would be remiss not to take on the opportunity cost of a
service industry job. For twenty one years I worked when my friends
and family did not, and that took a toll.