The Order in Which We Do Things: The Poetry of Tom Wayman

Paper, Scissors, Stone

Paper, Scissors, Stone An executive’s salary for working with paper beats the wage in a metal shop operating shears which beats what a gardener earns arranging stone. But the pay for a surgeon’s use of scissors is larger than that of a heavy equipment driver removing stone which in turn beats a secretary’s cheque for handling paper. And, a geologist’s hours with stone nets more than a teacher’s with paper and definitely beats someone’s time in a garment factory with scissors. In addition: to manufacture paper, you need stone to extract metal to fabricate scissors to cut the product to size. To make scissors you must have paper to write out the specs and a whetstone to sharpen the new edges. Creating gravel, you require the scissor-blades of the crusher and lots of order forms and invoices at the office. Thus I believe there is a connection between things and not at all like the hierarchy of winners of a child’s game. When a man starts insisting he should be paid more than me because he’s more important to the task at hand, I keep seeing how the whole process collapses if almost any one of us is missing. When a woman claims she deserves more money because she went to school longer, I remember the taxes I paid to support her education. Should she benefit twice? The Poetry of Tom Wayman / 27 Then there’s the guy who demands extra because he has so much seniority and understands his work so well he has ceased to care, does as little as possible, or refuses to master the latest techniques the new-hires are required to know. Even if he’s helpful and somehow still curious after his many years— again: nobody does the job alone. Without a machine to precisely measure how much sweat we each provide or a contraption hooked up to electrodes in the brain to record the amount we think, my getting less than him and more than her makes no sense to me. Surely whatever we do at the job for our eight hours—as long as it contributes— has to be worth the same. And if anyone mentions this is a nice idea but isn’t possible, consider what we have now: everybody dissatisfied, continually grumbling and disputing. No, I’m afraid it’s the wage system that doesn’t function except it goes on and will until we set to work to stop it with paper, with scissors, and with stone. 28 / The Order in Which We Do Things ...