Impersonal Yet Intimate
My interactions with my customers are both impersonal, yet intimate, at one and the same time. They are 'intimate' insofar as I am obliged to touch their dirty shoeleather with my menial mouth, and I also get to see their socks at close quarters. And yet the lowly transaction between us is also impersonal because:
- The vast majority of my customers never speak to me
- They (rightly) regard themselves as too superior to ever speak to me
- In any case they have no need to speak to me - it is obvious what I am required to do. I am a public humble-head and therefore I kiss feet
- They have better things to do with their time than converse with a lowly humble-head e.g. conversing with their friends on the phone
And so I get to know my customers' shoes and socks intimately - but that's as far as it goes. When they walk away from me I know I may never see them again. It's entirely their choice. and the vast majority of them will have completely forgotten about me in a very short time, since I am a nothing and a nobody. Just another anonymous, public humble-head out on the streets, kissing his superiors' feet.