on maturation

America needs to grow up. I mean really.

I just read this news article about Obama and how people are angry with him for going on vacation to Hawaii and playing golf while he was there. God forbid the president-elect should have a hobby. God forbid anyone in the United States should have the gall to play golf during an economic crisis. Obama should obviously be in Harlem playing street ball on a court with chains for nets.

I really don't understand people. Okay, rich people play golf, I get it, but my dad plays golf and he isn't rich. My best friend in high school played golf and he delivered pizzas.

And please, this whole hockey being a blue collar sport thing is insane. Do you have any idea how much the equipment for hockey costs? Talk about an expensive sport!

But EITHER WAY, why are we so judgmental of someone for spending time enjoying themselves? Why, in America, if you are not working are you seen as anti-American? Give it a rest, people!

I grew up in this family where my grandfather literally missed one day of work in forty years at the steel mill and that was because he was snowed in and could not get out of his door to get to the mill. My dad is a workaholic to the max and my brother recently admitted to the same thing. I just came out of a job where I was working fifteen hour days for at least a third of the year and twelve hour days for the rest, not including the time spent at home and on the weekends. There is something essentially wrong with the way Americans view themselves.

We are defined by our work. We are defined by how many hours we spend behind our desks, our computers, swinging a hammer, fixing, molding, creating, and doing that we don't have any other way of identifying ourselves.

I went through a period of pain after quitting my job. I cried several times because I didn't know who I was without "theatre teacher" attached to my title. I was just me, perhaps for the first time in my life, and I freaked out. I tried to do all these things to carve out an identity for myself, but you know, your identity does not have to be about what you do. Not about what you are paid for anyway. There's something to be said for turning your brain on idle for awhile and doing something you enjoy.

I think that the president-elect will be better for having spent some time on the green. Is it an elitist sport - sure, but the man is making a hell of a lot more money than me, and probably doesn't get much chance to golf in Chicago. And no matter what, if I got the chance to hang with my friends and walk a lot, I might take up golfing too. Let's give the guy a break, America. Let's take a little more time for ourselves to have a beer and watch the game, or get outside and hike with our families instead of worrying about how the president-elect spends his thirteen day vacation before starting the hardest job in the modern world.