The things Momma taught me…

Long before I hit puberty momma did her best to teach me the importance of always looking your best and carrying a purse. Her philosophy was simple, looks matter…you may not be the best looking person in the room but don’t prove it by looking worse than what you can either. They can say don’t judge a book by it’s cover but those are pretty words. Don’t give them an excuse not to get to know you.

When I hit puberty found out why I needed a purse, I figured that proved she might be right on the looks thing too.

During puberty the most important lesson she stressed was reputation. A loose woman may have a lot of male companions but she never had real friends. Once you obtained a reputation it would never before gotten. Of course living in a small town made that lesson easy to believe. She also explained the difference between a strong woman and a bitch. If you ever got a reputation as a bitch it was worse than being loose…a loose woman can repent, once a bitch always a bitch.

At a young age I was exposed to politics because of my mother’s job. She was in a government position surrounded by local politics and politicians. I once told her that I could never work in politics because you had to watch every word and action. She told me that life is nothing but a big political ring…you learn to deal with it or you are constantly putting out brush fires due to your comments or actions.

When I started working the lesson upper most discussed was the importance of never burning bridges. You may not like the company you work for but they sign your pay checks so you either show them loyalty or find another job. And even more important never disrespect them after you leave, you never know when you’ll need to go back or ask for a reference from them.

Needless to say that I have enough baggage to keep a psychiatrist busy for years…but who doesn’t. Unfortunately some people should have my baggage problems.

I never leave the house unless I’m ready to face people…very few have seen me looking like death warmed over, when I’m in that state I mostly hide at home…*G*. And yes, I worry about the ones who have seen me looking bad but I’m getting better about it.

I don’t live in a small town anymore but I still watch what I say and do because I still try to uphold the old reputation…some find me bitchy but I’ve come to terms with that as well, others find me ditzy which is fine because like momma says ‘you can improve dumb, bitching just gets worse with age’.

Momma was right about politics being all around us even if it’s never acknowledged. You have your leaders and you have your followers. If you don’t agree with the flow then you must walk that delicate line of making peace and helping change. If you aren’t careful you’ll come across as a bitch and get a reputation as a trouble maker…then you’ll never help change what you don’t like in that situation.

If your not smart enough not to bite the hand that feeds you…you pretty much deserve to get bitten right back. What you may not understand is the bite back is like a poison that may never get leached out of your reputation. When your next potential boss (or any boss in the future) looks into your work history, they will question if they really want someone that could potentially turn on them. Your past will follow you where ever you go, do you really want a stupid comment to follow you the rest of your life?

So yea, I’ve got baggage but I guess after reading blogs and loops about how this organization is so narrow minded or that company is substandard…I’ll take my baggage. Call me ditzy but my name isn’t going to be bandied around in the hot bed of political upheaval because my opinion doesn’t follow the leaders or the opposition of the moment.