nother is the phrase VIP which as we all know stands for Very Important Person. But now it's used every day as a marketing ploy to make people feel important. It usually involves paying more money. The more you pay the more of a VIP you are. All part of marketing nonsense. There's a lot of it about. Of course nothing is really as it seems. You meet a lot of people on a cruise - most of which you spend just a few minutes chatting to. You make an instant decision as to whether you like them without really knowing anything about their character, what they stand for and who they are as people.
Of course this works both ways. They know nothing about you, what you stand for and the kind of person you are. You could be a serial killer for all they know. Incidentally what do you call somebody who hacks boxes of corn flakes to pieces. Answer - a cereal killer. Conversations with people you have never met before start at a pretty low level. These include giving our names, talking about where we come from, how we spend our time when we are at home etc etc. These are of course people you will never see again once you leave the boat. They have made a fleeting entry into your life and just as quickly disappear. We do have huge respect for the staff who work on this and other cruise ships. They don't have an easy life, working seven days a week with only a handful of hours to themselves.
They always have to be smiling, polite and full of enthusiasm. It must be difficult to keep that going There is a definite hierarchical structure and it isn't unusual for a waiter to be balled out for something they have or haven't done. And all the time they are at the beck and call of what can be some arrogant travellers. We like to have a chat and a laugh and joke with our regular waiters who on this trip come from the Philippines and are called Audi (as in the make of the car) and John Mark. I think it is frowned upon for them to spend too much time talking with guests. We say this because every time they stop to chat they seem to get moved on to do some chore or other. Years ago on another cruise one of our waiters was disciplined after a traveller complained that he was being too familiar.
In other words was trying to be a human being with a sense of humour. He was quite upset by this. We enjoyed his company and finding out about his life. The result of all this is that these people turn into robots, scared of showing any human traits. I have a song that brilliantly illustrates this. If you can have a listen to Flowers Are Red by Harry Chapin. It's the story of a young boy at school who is encouraged to paint using all the colours of the rainbow. In other words he is allowed to express himself and so he paints grass that is red and skies that are green. Then he moves to another school and, when he expresses himself through his art, he is told that skies are blue, grass is green and flowers are red. In other words he is ordered to conform and any originality is knocked out of him. As he grows he becomes just another product of society with all originality squeezed out of him. In other words another human robot.