Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Please Hire Me

Okay. Got a job interview. Next week. For a Construction Manager position. (How butch is that, huh? "Yeah. I work construction. Whaddyou do? Sumfin wid computers?") The guy and I bonded on the phone. Had a good talk. (I'm so good at that!) By no means a shoe in. They're looking for someone who can estimate construction bids. I can't even guess the dollar amount of the groceries in my basket. And I just about always use the Fifteen Items Or Less line.

Quick! Anybody out there able to teach me that in the six days before my interview???

And this weekend I'm going away. Nope. Not gonna say where. If you want to find out you'll have to hack into my email account. (Please don't hack into my email account.)

Funny. Getting a new job would mean a lot to me, but I'm not feeling much in the way of anxiety about the interview. More concerned with what I'm gonna say to get the day off work. Doctor's appointment? Meeting with my probation officer?

Oh. And another interesting thing happened today. My partner at work, the Bush-votin', Bible-thumpin' guy with whom I get along really well (there's genuine affection between us), today asked me what I thought about men who become women and women who become men.

I could see where this was going.

I said I had no big problems with that. Not even as a Christian. I pointed out that a surprisingly large number of babies are born who are intersex, and an arbitrary decision is made to assign sex. Columbine Boy disagreed. He thought it was wrong. His reasoning was that if you were born a boy, then that's because God intended you to be a boy. And you best not try to go against God's will for you.

I asked about infants born with congenital abnormalities, that are corrected. Conjoined twins was the example I raised. If you separate conjoined twins, wouldn't that be going against God's will? (Sorry readers of transgendered experience, for comparing your situation to a birth defect.)

Columbine Boy had an answer ready for me. He views those things as the result of sin. The sins of our fathers, and of all mankind, going back to Adam. And, sin can be forgiven, but it can't be erased. And even when those defects are corrected, there's still some scar, some remnant. Because sin can't be erased.

And I think I agree with that. I sort of shut up, thinking about how it's our sense of ourselves as sinners, and our memories of all the sins we've committed (interpret the word "sin" anyway you wish, I think of it as those actions which separate us from God and from others) that make us truly human. Not much in the way of compassion coming from the sinless amongst us.

Egad! Had Columbine Boy won that round?

I continued to mull the issue as we worked.

And then Bingo! Galations 3:28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Sooo... God doesn't see any distinction between the sexes. So changing your apparatus, in God's eyes, is like changing your tshirt.

Because I quoted scripture, I won the argument. (And I'm an Episcopalian! We're not supposed to be able to do that!)

Man. I'll miss the current job. Miss the debates with Columbine Boy. Miss working with the guys. Miss the high regard in which I'm held by my co-workers. A lot to miss. But I won't miss $10-an-hour.


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