My family relates to domestic help in a very business-like way. Even though we have employed quite a number of maids over the years, the truth is, I've never been close to any of them.
Part of it is the commuication barrier, but I think another is because of the way we treat them. Not that we mistreat them, but just that we never make the effort to get to know them on a personal level.
The result?
Having someone close to your age, who's intelligent, lives in the same house as you, but who is ultimately a stranger to you.
It struck me the other day, when my Aunty Yati talked on the phone to her sister, how animated she suddenly became! How her voice was suddenly inflected with tones I've never heard from her, how completely spirited a character she suddenly assumed!
I could go on and on, but suffice to say that I paid a little more attention and realized just how lively and well-rounded a person she is. It made me feel really guilty for never trying to get to know her before, and the following line, from the book Jane Eyre, is a fitting rebuke to myself.
"Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!"
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