Asked why I go to the damn things, my reply is usually, “Probation department requirements.” It both opens the door and gets a little face remembrance.
The real reason I do the damn things is because I’d otherwise be a homebody. When I’m home, I work: dogs, cats, callbacks, problem solving, house stuff… it’s never ending. Then there are the business items, usually dispatched by quick top of the mind answers. Pretty boring, huh?
And because of THOSE things, I’ll sometimes stay away from those ‘probationary details’. This morning I went. And I was greeted by a number of ‘conservative’ farmers, ranchers and business people, who it seemed were wanting answers from ‘someone’ about all this “WOKE” business. Being shy and retiring, I took the pshaw approach, by shuffling my feet and looking down, mostly to get them going. It did: there was ribbing, a few jibes, and chatter regarding ‘reforming probation’, the general fraternal stuff.
So after breakfast we get a chance to ‘pay the kitty’, stand up and talk uninterrupted for 5, may a bit more minutes. I defined my version of ‘woke.’
I started by reintroducing myself in the event anyone was confusing me with a giraffe from the zoo, and defined my thought: “Woke”, is being considerate, polite, and showing compassion for those who are different from me”.
I added, ‘Most of you are also woke: you greet each other with an open and accepting manner, you receive and give compliments, act cordially and listen without interruption to those you speak with. You treat your partners, and friends with respect and dignity in every way. People know they can count on you to chip in, turn out, lend a hand and give advice. You keep confidences, you share experience and in these ways support community.’
‘There are also many things you decline or refuse to do and I’ll name some: we don’t shout at people we don’t agree with, or tolerate bullies... we don’t let a wrong go without interceding, we don’t wait for ‘someone else’ to do it, we don’t take credit for another’s work, and we don’t seek attention and reward for helping one another out... and we apologize when we are wrong... most of us.’ -that got some laughs.
‘There are things we do, however which outnumber the things we don’t: we go out of our way to accommodate where we can help out, we volunteer, keep our word and therefore our word means something. We volunteer because we value community and support building relations to make this place better for everyone. We are diverse, we have hobbies, interests and friends we support with encouragement and our labor, time and advice.
In other words, we are “woke” (finger quotes), We are ‘democrats’ (again: finger quotes) in deeds and action, although some of us understand more deeply the reason for those actions than other... and that’s why I’m here among other people who are “woke”.
I sat down after adding another fiver to the kitty. There was loud applause and several shouts of support.
Afterwards many of us carried several more conversations into the lobby, the parking lot, and latter a couple by phone. It seems that defining ‘woke’ as a necessary feature of being involved and supporting each other, is a good thing.
It also puts one behind on all the other things on the ‘to do list’, so why not another half hour delay??
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