I was called altruistic today. I had to look it up. Coming from my property manager, I
can't tell if he was complimenting me or mocking me. I think he'd rather
call me naive, but that's rude. Our relationship is interesting. He's my
property manager. He was my dad's property manager. That's how I know
him. He was my dad's business-friend, and I've know him for years. He's
probably known me since I was a baby. I hired him when I was 23 to
manage my building so that I could move to Santa Fe. My beloved professor had hooked me up with an exciting internship at the Santa Fe Art Institute. Someone in Santa Fe was willing to pay me 1000 dollars a month to work
for them. Who were these marvelous people? I wanted to kiss them.
It really could have been anywhere. I just wanted to get out of New York, and prove that I was capable of shaping my own destiny. That was nine years ago. It was a decision I made on my own, and was very secretive about. I didn't seek out the advice of my dad. At that point, I was actively keeping many life plans from him as past conversations about my aspirations had resulted in exasperation and heartache. His opinions intimidated me. His negativity hurt me. He disagreed with many of my schemes, and belittled my boho desire to be an artist. So as bank accounts and bills where being transferred over to my new, business-friend property manager, I kept my fingers crossed that word of my business dealings would reach him only after I had safely made it to Santa Fe and my belongings were being taken out of their boxes.
One thing I learned pretty early was that business-friends operate on a different set of values than friend-friends. Business-friends don't operate altruistically. Not that friend-friends always do, but in general, business-friends operate monetarily. It was very direct and simple. I called and hired him, and now he was my business-friend too. Thus, I was free to runaway from the responsibility of having to manage my building- which I had been managing since I was 19 (I treat the building like a teen pregnancy. I wasn't ready to raise this baby!) and cavort in the exciting and beguiling art world of Santa Fe or wherever. When my dad found out, he was pissed.
What does any of this have to do with anything? Everything.
It really could have been anywhere. I just wanted to get out of New York, and prove that I was capable of shaping my own destiny. That was nine years ago. It was a decision I made on my own, and was very secretive about. I didn't seek out the advice of my dad. At that point, I was actively keeping many life plans from him as past conversations about my aspirations had resulted in exasperation and heartache. His opinions intimidated me. His negativity hurt me. He disagreed with many of my schemes, and belittled my boho desire to be an artist. So as bank accounts and bills where being transferred over to my new, business-friend property manager, I kept my fingers crossed that word of my business dealings would reach him only after I had safely made it to Santa Fe and my belongings were being taken out of their boxes.
One thing I learned pretty early was that business-friends operate on a different set of values than friend-friends. Business-friends don't operate altruistically. Not that friend-friends always do, but in general, business-friends operate monetarily. It was very direct and simple. I called and hired him, and now he was my business-friend too. Thus, I was free to runaway from the responsibility of having to manage my building- which I had been managing since I was 19 (I treat the building like a teen pregnancy. I wasn't ready to raise this baby!) and cavort in the exciting and beguiling art world of Santa Fe or wherever. When my dad found out, he was pissed.
What does any of this have to do with anything? Everything.
