Equality

Abraham Lincoln said that all men are created equal. I agree, we are created by God as human beings and we all have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I was thinking about this while at work today. I have told you all before that I work at the gym on base. I am a cleaning lady. I collect all the nasty sweaty towels, wash and dry them, fold them. I refill all the disinfectant spray bottles, clean the windows and doors almost every five minutes because someone always likes to use their grimy hands or worse, their entire sweaty torso to open the door. I empty the trash, sweep the gym, and vacuum the group fitness studio, cardio and weight area, and occasionally the spin studio. (Another girl who works with me likes doing the deep cleaning of the spin room. Hey, knock yourself out girly!) I do not do all of this everyday or by myself. Almost all of this is done everyday though, oh, and the racquetball courts. They have to be swept and the glass has to be cleaned, but mostly the night crew does that.
Today I didn't want to or plan to vacuum. It looked so nice this morning at 4:45 the ugly rubber hunter green floor seemed to glisten. Around 8:30 a trainer came up to me to tell me that it looked like someone had stomped their feet off right at the end of a treadmill. I pull out the broom planning to just spot sweet these big areas. Nope can't really spot sweep when the entire gym seemes to be covered in sand. I realize that we are right on the beach and so some sand is going to be there. I would really like to talk to whoever chose the green rubber floor. They do in fact make rubber gym flooring in a beige color, it would disguise the sand so much better. I guess they really wanted to know that people like me are doing our jobs of cleaning those floors. I get it, I guess. It is easier to clean if you can see what it is your cleaning, but I would still vacuum if the floor was beige and it wouldn't look so desperately dirty either.
So I pull out the vacuum. The vacuum is like the one on Ghostbusters, it is a backpack. It's pretty cool and I get around with it ok. It does get hot and can hurt my back after about an hour, but I still feel pretty cool when I wear it. Until I see some gorgeous girl with her trim gym body, then I feel a little foolish.
I start vacuuming and getting up all this dreadful sand. I start thinking about these people who tracked in this mountain of sand. Who are they? Do they seriously think it is ok to dump out sand in a building? How could someone be so inconsiderate? It is job security for me so I guess I should be grateful to these people who make the gym dirty, but really, I'm not. Who do you think you are Mr.Sandman!? I am not your personal cleaning lady!
Then I start thinking about equality. Mr. Sandman, I know just views me as the cleaning lady. Thats fine. It is in fact what I do for a living. However, just because I clean up your sand, and sweat does not mean I am less of a person, less of a human. I see it all the time when people ask what I do. "Oh, you work?" "Yes, I work at the gym. I'm a cleaning lady." "oh" Haha, and that's it, end of topic. That never happened when I was a dental assistant. They would always ask what doctor I worked with, how I liked it, or even if I knew about some tooth issue they had.
Then I started thinking about how people view each other. Yes, we are in fact equal as human beings. However, I have become painstakingly aware of the American class system. We are divided mostly by wealth and education, but also what we do for a living and even how we look. I could be the best paid cleaning lady in the world, (I wish!) but still their would be people who would stick up their nose to that, even if I made more money than them. I do this too, I'm not proud of it. Oh and speaking of looks, when I take the time and put hot rollers in my hair and do my make-up nicely people are nicer to me. Seriously, the same gym patrons who see me Mon-Fri are more interested in me when I look better. They smile at me and try to make conversation. (This is regular conversation by the way, no one is flirting or anything like that, they are just nicer when I look nicer.) When I go in as regular Audra, they just go on about their work-out.
I am blogging about this because I think that the more aware we become of how we see and do things the more apt we are to make changes where we need to. I guess I'm bringing to light my own faults and judgments. Becoming a cleaning lady has made me realize that I in fact do judge people who clean. I in fact am more interested in a teacher than a retail worker, or hairdresser than a cafeteria worker. That is a shame. I hope that what I learn from this is that all people, even if we aren't equal by social status, deserve respect. Not by first giving respect or earning it. Just by being. You deserve respect.
Oh, and for goodness sake, please wipe your dirty feet off before you come into my gym.