Been to a singles bar lately? Checked out an Internet dating site? Not that I would know, but I hear that the No. 1 question is, “So, what do you do?” The question enslaves if used as a proxy for valuing??people, but it liberates if used as a starting point for understanding them. Art illuminates the contrast between life and work. It can teach values, provide clarity and generate understanding.
Let’s start with the all-too-common phenomenon of identity morphing from who we are into what we do. It happens to lawyers a lot, and lawyers can inflict that metamorphosis on others, seeing them only in their work roles. Here is Marge Piercy, with “The Secretary Chant”: “My hips are a desk,/From my ears hang/chains of paper clips,/Rubber bands from my hair/My breasts are quills of/mimeograph ink/My feet bear casters/Buzz. Click.” She closes on these lines: “File me under W/because I wonce/was/a woman.” And I thought the Borg on “Star Trek” were scary.
