Readers sound off meter maids and “mandatory positive thinking.”
Ticketed Off
IN RESPONSE to Carolyn Claey's letter (“Meter-Made Problem,” Posts, Dec. 14), I wholeheartedly agree. Normally I have loads of change in my car, but one recent day I went downtown to pick up a friend who was job interviewing. There were six minutes left on the meter, so I went for it. I believe I arrived at my car one to two minutes after the meter had expired. My one–time gamble, out of dozens of visits and good meter behavior, cost me $38.
Normally I like shopping downtown at the holiday, but you can bet I haven't this year. The city is shooting itself in the foot by nailing people who can support local business: those of us lucky enough to own vehicles, be employed, and who want to keep money flowing in the Santa Cruz economy. I would venture a guess that tourists may feel a tad disgruntled when they get aggressively ticketed, after being stuck in busy stores for a few minutes longer than they had expected.
Ann Louise Wagner
Santa Cruz
Embrace The Shadow
I JUST read your piece about Café Gratitude (“Gracefully Accepting,” Currents, Dec. 14), and to tell the truth, just like Disneyland employees, religious cults and campaigning politicians, there’s something creepy about any individual, group, organization or business that promotes mandatory “positive thinking” for both its employees and customers. Writers as diverse as Barbara Ehrenreich and Eric G. Wilson have eloquently shown how the Pollyanna attitude is often a mask for passive-aggressiveness, denial and “control” at all costs. I walked into the Café Gratitude once, and I was so uncomfortable I had to leave and never go back. Interestingly enough, the Asana Tea House, another New Age business which previously occupied the same spot, was a regular hang-out of mine before it closed in July, where I felt totally comfortable. Some of the staff were smiling and chatty, others were more aloof, unsmiling and reserved (and made no secret of it), and I was friendly and accepted them both, since I believe to fully accept reality and other people is to be non-dualistic and take people as they are. I prefer honest warmth, sadness, shyness, humor or anger more than phony “niceness” when dealing with other people. whether in a business situation or any other situation. It is cliché that hippies and New Agers can’t face the “shadow” side of themselves and others (hence punk and goth as fully legitimate reaction formations in the music scene), and it is high time that people integrate their “shadow” and become whole beings who can express a wide and authentic range of emotions, not just the “positive” ones, for accepting the “shadow” is the basis of unconditional love, as well as the basis of sly, dark, macabre surreal humor.
Erich J. Holden
Santa Cruz
