(no subject)

[shatterstorm.livejournal.com]

Grocery shopping and multiplicity - thought some of you would get a laugh out of this.

I was in the grocery store picking up some odds and ends for dinner tonight. There was only one register open. Seven or eight people in line when I joined it. The cashier was working hard, trying to be fast and staying pleasant. Another young man stepped behind him and was helping to speed things along bagging groceries. By the time my items were being rung up, there were nine people behind me. Some of our younger selves were unhappy - we didn't like being around all these stressed people in a senseless situation.

One of our guardians grabbed the body, turned in the direction of the manager's office, inhaled, and bellowed loud enough to be heard across a football field. "HEY! OPEN ANOTHER REGISTER!"

The employees couldn't stop grinning, several people in line yelled "yeah!" "that's right!", and the cashier was so delighted he dug out some complaint forms (with free postage!) to pass out to people in line.

Comments

[tempusfrangit.livejournal.com]

::giggles:: YAY for guardians!!!

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Hah, I've done that a couple times... I call it my "lumberjack voice".

[pleiades-rising.livejournal.com]

XD That's awesome! Sounds like something Afiel would do... sometimes I can be too shy to shout out anything in a store. What's a "guardian" though?

[shatterstorm.livejournal.com]

A lot of multiples have people who are more aggressive, willing to engage in confrontations or violence. Those who have developed a bond with their system-mates and go out of their way to take care of them are often called Protectors or Guardians.

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't quite go that far. Aggressive confrontation and violence are counterproductive when applied to a lot of situations, especially ones in which no immediate physical threat is present. You can have a system like ksol1460's in which violence is basically anathema, and still have those who guard and protect the people-- think of nonviolent revolutions, of Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

[shatterstorm.livejournal.com]

Willing to engage does not mean try to cause them. It is a big difference. Someone who walks up to a stranger and punches them is a serious problem. Someone who blocks a punch and defuses the situation is a protector. Someone who takes the punch silently needs to move and let us front.

We find confrontations as an adult to very rarely be violent. This is a good thing. :) But we'll take the fore in emotionally abusive situations, and times when clear limits need to be restated to people refusing to honor them. Aggression is often verbal in mainstream culture. Passive-aggressive behavior is far too common. We're willing to face confrontations and call people on conntrolling behaviors that many people will tolerate.

For us, the one who reminds whoever's fronting to take the evening vitamins isn't a guardian. The one who intervenes when a relative starts screaming at us because they're upset about something we have nothing to do with is a guardian.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

A guardian is one who takes responsibility for her or his people's wellbeing.

[beyli.livejournal.com]

Thus, we are all guardians (or at least ought to be).

[shatterstorm.livejournal.com]

For us, if we used that definition, we'd be turning us all into guardians. ;)

When one of our traumatized ones is brave enough to let someone able to stop a harmful situation front, they're showing responsibility for the safety of all of us. When someone's unsure about something that affects us all (that last $20 in the wallet, medical issues, etc...) and asks around, they're being responsible. When our gal with SI issues talks with some of us and eases what drives her before she starts damaging the body, she's being responsible for our wellbeing. It is part of being a member of the community.

what's a protector

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

Anthea and Harriet of our system co-wrote an essay about it, from a slightly different perspective than you'll see on a lot of pages: http://www.dreamshore.net/amorpha/protector.html

Re: what's a protector

[shatterstorm.livejournal.com]

*bemused* Huh. All of ours are female, and more than one is a child.

We treat the roles of healer and teacher/advisor as separate from guardian. There are people here who take on more than one of those roles.

The incredible hulk thing was funny ;) It would be a pain in the arse to deal with in real life though.

[the-maenad.livejournal.com]

My guardian-equivalent laughed her head off at this one.

Did they open another register, though?

[shatterstorm.livejournal.com]

Alas, no. Whoever had the authority to do so wasn't going to show their face. :( But the kids were relaxed again because the angry people were all chuckling and smiling.

But we did fill out the complaint form and it goes to the district manager... so we shall see if we can coax the behemoth that is Safeway to stir. ;) It is an otherwise nice store, I suspect that either the staffing manager is cheap, the manager is cleared to work a register but refuses to do so, or they've received a command from above that they aren't to have more than one cashier during the day.