Tuesday

It's Tuesday and my throat feels as though little gardeners have been in it, using a rototiller to get it ready for spring planting. I sound like Barry White (Yeah, girl. Alllllright) and I'm tired. Nevertheless, I'm here at work. We are midway though orienting a new group of students and one of the hard and fast rules here is that you can't take time off during orientation. So, in my efforts to be a semi-useful employee, I'm sitting here, waiting for my turn with the students, rather than being at home in bed. It's not as bad as I'm making it out to be. I just get crabby and intolerant when I feel a little run down.

My boss has already put me in a bad mood this morning. Every orientation we show the new students a film, usually something to do with young African Americans overcoming adversity. Freedom Writers, Pride, etc. Well, yesterday when I reminded my boss to get the movie for today he said he was going to have us watch Denzel Washington's latest, The Great Debaters. I pointed out that it was still in second-run theaters and wasn't available on DVD. He threw me a cocky, knowing look and said, "Oh, I got it." I pointed out that, if we're trying to set a good example of being law-abiding citizens for our students, we probably shouldn't show a bootleg copy of a movie in our orientation. He waved me off and mumbled something about getting Freedom Writers. This morning, what's in my box in the mail room? A disc with "Great Debators" scrawled on it with a Sharpie marker.



My guess is that my boss didn't even try to get another movie and that he figures it's my job to do what he asks and that includes showing some movie that he bought from the back of his friend's barber shop. (Bootleg copies of movies are big business in Detroit because not many people have the necessary computer access to download things for themselves). If that is what he figures, he figures right. I think it's a bad idea and a bad example but he's the boss and, ultimately, the responsibility falls to him, not me.

Am I just being needlessly priggish about this? I mean, it isn't as though I don't have a small collection of copied CDs from the public library at home. I'm not exactly guiltless when it comes to taking someone's intellectual property without asking. But at the same time, I don't hand copies out to students and say, "Didn't pay a red cent for this one!" I don't know. It might just be the fact that my boss gets on my nerves and there isn't much that he can do right in my eyes right now.

Whatever it is, it shouldn't matter. Acceptance is the key to serenity. I'll let my boss take care of his side of the street and I'll start worrying more about my side of the street.

....

For the record, I watched the first hour and ten minutes of the movie with the students and then had to leave to teach another class. I liked what I saw for the most part. Washington is a confident, unaffected director and it's always nice to see that. Some contemporary actors have proven themselves to be really talented directors -- The Postman aside, Kevin Costner is good and, anti-Semitism aside, Mel Gibson is too.