The Ghost Of Corporate Future.

I was sitting in a non descript room, swelling with absurd faces and lousy neck ties. There were comments on the weather, and blotchy , rather grotesque articulation in regards to the state of things "on the Market." The walls were blank except for a ridiculously painted "tranquil" scene of a boat docked on a tropical island shore, looking out onto the ocean. I decided to pull out my copy of "A People's History Of The United States" by Howard Zinn, to will away the muddiness of it all. A rather boisterous looking man sat on my left talking very fast, into his small blue tooth cellular phone attachment.. It was rather strange sitting next to a man in deep conversation to a person I could not see, while I, being a mere observer, tried not to interfere as to candidly point out that this man's sausage like index finger was clearly intruding in my personal space.

" Oh come on, Charlie, you know that The Dow closed up 73.03 to 11,288.54. Broader indexes were little changed, with the Standard & Poor's 500 up 1.38 to 1,262.90 and the Nasdaq composite down 6.08 to 2,245.38," blabbered the man.

I then wondered rather surreptitiously, sitting quietly next to the man talking to "Charlie", what He looked like while making love to his wife, or walking his dog, or taking a dump, or taking his kids to soccer practice. I wondered if He knew where his teenage kids go at night, Or if he'd ever made another woman moan, even his wife. As I sat pondering this, I thought about my life. I thought how horrible it would be to end up like this man, talking about stock exchanges and and owning a phone that contains a life of it's own. When people make you nervous, an every body's features have somehow started blending, and everyone is plastic, and every one's sarcastic, and all your food is frozen and needs to be defrosted. You'd think the world was ending.

After a few minutes, this man hung up his mouthpiece, and unplugged his cellular device. As we sat in silence, I had the sudden urge to talk to this man. I said, " Hello, how are you today sir?" The man seemed very surprised. He turned to me and just stared at me for a few seconds before answering. " Oh... well quite well young lady, thank you for asking." replied the man with the most absurd haircut I'd ever seen. It seemed to say, ' I am to be respected'****. He turned to face forward once more, though still looking my way out of the corner of his eye. I said, " Excuse me sir, may I ask you a personal question?" He turned to me once more, and yet, did not look me in the eye, and said, " I don't see why not..." " Do you look at your life sir? Is it fulfilling, in your opinion?" Now he looked into my eyes with an expression of sheer and complete shock. He hesitated for a moment, and then half smiled at me. " How old are you, may I ask?" I replied, " Sixteen." He then smiled wryly with a fatherly expression on his face and replied, " Aha, now I know why you have asked me that question. Well if I am to speak frankly, I should tell you that 'No,' I do not feel fulfilled with my life." I said, " If I may ask sir, why is that?" He pondered for a minute or so and said, " Well... I think I don't spend enough time with my wife and kids. My daughter is around your age, and I don't believe I know her well at all. And my wife... my wife.." He ran his hands through his hair wearily. " My wife is not very happy with me at the moment." He looked at me again and seemed to be slightly embarrassed. " I'm sorry," I looked at him and smiled. " No, please, don't be. I think it was lovely of you to share that with me." He seemed to relax a bit. " You must think I'm some sort of working stiff." I turned to him and smiled a little wider, and said, " On the contrary, I think you do what you have to, and that deserves nothing but respect." He looked inquiringly at me and asked, " You really believe that deserves respect?" I replied, " Yes, I do." He said " I want to be with my wife and kid. I want to be there for them and live life with them, not march off to work everyday looking like I'm going to a funeral. I mean I'm in a suit for god sake. I wasn't always like this." I considered him for a moment and then said, " May I make a suggestion?" He looked up and said, "Please, please do." I said, " for starters, maybe you should just drink a lot less coffee and never ever watch the ten o'clock news. maybe you should go home and make love to your wife or lick a rock, or both. maybe you should cut your own hair, cause that can be so funny. It doesn't cost any money, and it always grows back, hair grows even after you're dead."