My old friends (we worked together at the airport 20 years ago)
were going to come visit me in Omaha for New Year
Not now.
My friend put hubby through Wharton, and now he is an investment banker for one of the world's very largest investment banks.
We have been talking for months about them coming to visit me in Omaha for New Year.
As it turned out, they had considered stopping in Omaha as part of a trip along legendary route 66. When they found out Omaha did not lie on the legendary route, plans shifted.
Now it turns out that hubby has booked an Antarctic cruise....my friend now has tender feelings for him "supporting his childhood dream he's had since reading about Antarctica in his childhood.....he hardly read about Omaha in his childhood!"
I can only agree - it would have been horribly embarrassing to talk about going to Omaha for a holiday....his peers would have thought him an odd duck indeed, or much worse, that his bonus hadn't quite measured up. Now he will be able to maintain his dignity and status at the cocktail parties and three star dinners on the company tab.
The fact that this came at the cost of diminishing his friendship with an old friend is of course peanuts by comparison.
And they are completely oblivious to the fact that such sumptuous indulgence is really now not understood by others, especially those of us who have been struggling.
Feasting in the time of the plague.
My more gentle direct grumbling about the situation fell on truly deaf ears.
The incident is not just a personal disappointment for me, it seems symbolic of the bubble these people live in. And let's remember they are very much ordinary people, friends from years gone by.
This all seems very pertinent on Black Friday / Buy Nothing Day.
They really do not understand the artificiality of their "needs" and how they are manufactured by their peer group and the culture of greed that surrounds them.
Nor do they understand that such choices come at a real human price.
I'm not even really mad at them, but the gulf between us has widened.