Money can't buy you class

>>  Sunday, August 25, 2013

Or maybe it should be: Money can't buy you cognitive intelligence.

I was sat watching a group of people thinking 'money can't buy you class' but these days it would seem that there has been a redefinition of class and according to the BBC, money is precisely what buys you class, money and how many times you can afford to get out socialising in a week.

So maybe I'm not actually talking about true 'class' but what, in my world, that defines 'class' or generally nice, caring people from the scrote. A term applied by HWMBO to 'the other type'.

For me swearing isn't part of it. Those who know me know I care a lot about people. I will carry a screaming child with no connection to me around on a long haul flight until it falls asleep to save a mother's sanity but I will call someone who tuts at said child and gives mother dirty looks an utter arse without shame and I consider the F-word to be one of the most versatile in the dictionary when used with discretion. At funeral or Guide meeting: nope; at desk when cat-A service crashes: oh yes indeedy.

For me 'class' is the ability to recognise there are other people that share this world besides you and your family. Our actions directly or indirectly affect others too and that matters.

I watched a 10 or 11 year old boy ram his bike into my parked one. He was also watched by his mother. I waited for her to say something. I expected as a minimum 'be careful' but she said nothing at all.

But it's not even about what I consider to be poor child behaviour going unchecked.

Perhaps it's about stepping aside for buggies, holding a door open for the next person, not leaving litter behind, closing a gate, not putting a group of chairs across a walk through, picking up someone else's coat if it falls to the floor, not brushing crumbs onto the floor.

All of these things, if done, can make the world a slightly nicer place. Lots of slightlies make a big difference.

Sometimes people or families live as if nobody else in the world exists or matters. Everything they do is done with that in mind. They might go on a parent rota if there is a threat of closure but they wouldn't otherwise offer to help. They would ensure their whole family gets a locker but wouldn't double up to enable other families to get one too. They will spread out to take up a whole picnic table rather than squish up to share.

I think I'm fairly well racked up in cognitive but fail in the 'self' part of emotional intelligence. COG is the same. We both get grumpy when things in the world are getting hard or scary or change is afoot. I will fall out with people quickly because I don't take time to rein my emotion in. I then go back to happy quickly as if the quick release of adrenaline cleared the air but it can leave other people reeling in my wake. I guess this isn't classy either.

So is class the stuck up woman that has a handbag full of expensive makeup, has wonderful manners and great conversation but wouldn't roll up her sleeves to help others in need?

Or is is the helper that cares about others, shares their table and swears like a trooper?

Is it somewhere inbetween?

There are some people I just cannot relate to and many, I don't doubt, that can't relate to me.

Life is a rich tapestry.


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