The Non-Profit Type

Apparently I am a "type."

I was attempting to mow my lawn the other day (attempted because my allergies are so out of control nowadays that 15 minutes in nature is about all I can handle) when a newish neighbor rode her bike by my house. As she passed me she said "I saw you in the paper! I love your place!" That was an ice breaker I couldn't refuse, of course so we started talking. She wanted to know where I work. I sort of sheepishly said I did accounting for an insurance company. I then had to qualify that with the fact that I worked for non profits for ten years before I sold out and went corporate. Her response? "Yeah, you looked like the non-profit type, I figured." That isn't the first time I've been told that, several times in fact. Which has got me to thinking...what makes me look like a non-profit type?

My glasses I know make me look more studious than if I wore contacts. It isn't the reason I wear glasses but it is a side effect that I like. The fact that I don't wear makeup I'm sure has something to do with it, that my hair is long and not dyed or overly processed. My clothes? Yeah, I suppose although not near as much these days and they once did.

And what exactly does being the "non-profit type" really mean? Does it mean it appears I work towards ending injustice in the world? Does it mean I look like I don't have much money? A do-gooder? Thoughtful? And if I do look like the non-profit type does that mean that the people I see in the halls at my corporate job look at me and think that I am out of place? In the wrong element? Or do they think that I finally gave up on trying to make the world a better place in order to make a little bit more disposable income?

Of course I was complimented by her (and the others) assessment. My mother once told me that she saw one of my roles as an activist being the mainstream person at work espousing radical views that shocked many of my coworkers (wait, you support the liberation of mink destined to be killed on fur farms?) and as the mainstream person at the anarchist riots who looks like one of "them" but is really just as pissed off as they are. While it often makes me feel like a fish out of water I am happy playing that role (most of the time) and I suspect that looking like the "non-profit type" helps me pull it off.