The other night we had a spaghetti dinner to raise money for our preschool. When I arrived I saw a husband I hadn't seen in months. I asked how he was and if they were keeping him busy at work. He said yes. I think I must have made a face, and he said, "it's good, it keeps me busy and doing things, and makes the days go by faster." I think I probably made another face, and said something like, yeah it might not be the worst thing though if you had less work (oh yeah, I forgot to mention, he's a homicide detective). He returned my comment with an odd look of his own. I had pretty much stalled the conversation with my looks and comments. I tried to cut my losses and said, "My guess is you'll still have plenty to do for a long while..." and walked away.
I sort of felt like a schmuck later. I wondered if I had insulted him. I wasn't trying to devalue the work that he does; we need homicide detectives, unfortunately, murder is a very real thing in our area. And while I value what he does, I do wish he had a bit less to do from day to day...heck, I probably wouldn't even object if he had so little to do that he had to find another job. Not that I want him to be out of work, not in a way that has anything to do with him specifically anyway, but having too few murders (or say none at all) so that there were no work for him to do--I'd go for that. But next time I think I might keep my overly idealistic what-if-we-actually-could-near-the-kingdom-of-God mouth shut.
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