Who Are They?

Mike is 26. He works at Applebee’s as a bartender six nights a week making minimum wage plus tips. He just financed a 2002 Nissan Altima and is excited to get a new paint job. After Mike graduated from his Catholic high school in West County, St. Louis, he chose not to attend college. Instead, he moved out of the state to live with some buddies who wanted to open up a jungle-themed sports bar. After a few years of binge drinking, drug usage, and apartment hopping, Mike returned to St. Louis to live with his mother, whose husband had left her a year and a half earlier for another woman. This puts us at the present, with Mike working at Applebee’s as a bartender. After working his usual weekly line up–open Sunday, close Tuesday through Thursday, double on Friday, close on Saturday–he enjoys relaxing with his friends, who also happen to work at Applebee’s. There’s Dan the cook, Crystal the cocktail waitress, Jeff the other bartender, Maggie the hostess, and Kristin and Sara, Maggie’s friends. Dan’s girlfriend might show up later. They go over to Mike’s apartment because his mom is usually over at her boyfriend’s house. Maggie and her friends ride with Jeff because Maggie’s mom took her car away and her friends can’t drive yet. Dan is elected to pick up some Jack Daniels, two cases of Budweiser, and some class of flavored rum for the girls. When they all arrive at Mike’s mom’s apartment, they settle in for a nice evening of poker, xbox, “40 Year Old Virgin” and a 1:30 am trip to White Castle. At 3:00 am, they decide to call it a night. Some drive home, some pass out on Mike’s couch. They do it again two nights later.

Jessica is 19. She works at American Eagle earning as a sales associate. She went to a small, private school in West County, St. Louis and made homecoming court her last two years there. She just broke up with her boyfriend of four years because he’s moving to Kansas City to study Architecture. Jessica plans to go to St. Louis Community College at Forest Park for the first couple of years of college and would one day like to be a fashion designer. Her favorite movies are “Hitch”, “The Holiday”, “Miracle” and any Julia Roberts movie. Jessica grew up in a conservative, two-income, two-child family. She and her sister, 17, both received brand new Volkswagen Jettas for their sixteenth birthdays (their uncle owns a car dealership in West County), and have been promised a trip to Europe with their father if they graduate from college with straight A’s. Every spring break and summer, she takes a road trip to Destin with her four best friends, Tiffany, Julia, Marcy, and Candice. Her “most favorite thing” to do is lie out in the sun on the beach with her friends.

Neither Jessica nor Mike know who C.S. Lewis is (unless you were to mention “Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). They have never read Flannery O’Connor. Mike is a non-practicing Catholic, and Jessica goes to her cousin Stacy’s church on holidays. The only thing either of them know about is art is what they heard when they weren’t sleeping through art history class, it’s quite likely that the only reason they have ever heard of Andy Warhol is because they’ve seen his prints of Marilyn Monroe. They eat at chain restaurants (unless it’s Mexican). Jessica listens to John Mayer, Five for Fighting and Dave Matthews. Mike listens to Jermaine Dupree, Incubus, and DMX. Neither of them are concerned about global warming.

They are both nice. They are as mainstream as it gets, and they’re not into “culture”.

So who are they?

They are people just like you. They are your culture.

Maybe we need to redefine how we approach the world, because right now, we’ve got it backwards. Only a small demographic of people read Paste, enjoy sushi, listen to “indie” bands, watch independent films, eat organic good, and have even heard of e.e. cummings.

The rest? They are not interested in us. They don’t like our music, they don’t read our books, they don’t eat at our restaurants….they don’t do what we do. So what do we do? What they do. And we love them. That is how we engage.

These examples are based on the lives of real people. Only their names and some places have been changed.