Friday, May 02, 2014

The Ambiguity of Usefulness ~ 2

Not long after that dinner, either by a struck of bad luck, or karma, or malice, whatever it is, we got another gloomy information. J's contract would not be extended. According to her, the company was not in a good position to keep the business going, so the management made several cuts. Her contract was one of the plan. In short, she went for another job hunting while fulfilling the current contract. Dinner time will always be the perfect set for me to retrieve information.

"So, did she call you guys?"
"Yes, just to inform us about that."
"Does she share the plan? I mean, whether to stay here, or go back."
"Nope. We don't know. Probably she doesn't share about it, except with her husband."
"Well, probably."

It's not unusual for us (by us, I mean me and J, who's my cousin) to be 'easily' compared by using money. It's the easiest parameter that we can use (or, at least, to see the things 'born' from money). So you can see the "atas" class in a single glance(by "atas", I mean the upper class).

But then, how about the middle and lower stratum? Simply put, struggling for balance: food-education-bills-etc. Unless if they want to mutate their own status. Probably that's the way the society works. Yet, the show must go on.

Later that night, I called my parents. I'm not staying with them, due to some circumstances. A usual chit-chat, asking for the latest information about neighbor, weather, economic, and so on, until my mother pulled the string about J.

"Probably J will come back."
"That, I don't know. We'll know about it soon."
"Probably it won't be useful. You know, it has been one year since her wedding, and her mom already snaps about baby."
"But she's already has grandchildren. Plus, it's not like she will participate in taking care of the baby."
"Well, you know. That's just her style."
"Kind of a useless tantrum."
"So, how's yours?"
"Nothing, really. Money comes first."
"I see. But just don't pretend that you have total control of time. Nobody does."
"I know that."

After the call, before I hit the bed, I kept on thinking about the partnership in starting a family. Do we have to, even if it doesn't bring any benefits? What's the point?

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