Drifting from "us" to "them"

I've been grappling with a theory lately, but I haven't quite gotten it nailed down. So I figure this is the best place to try and make sense of it.

It's not that revolutionary, but I've realized lately that I feel more connected with the real world now that I'm not doing journalism. Working at a cafe, I meet a ton of diverse people every day, and I work with folks who come from just about every kind of background.

In journalism, I feel like we get isolated with other journalists -- who are generally great, interesting people, but they often come from the same mold. They're inquisitive, cynical, and saddled by a modern tradition of feigning emotion or conservative morality. What I mean is, journalists never talk about sources or stories the same way they write about them. We tear-jerkingly portray the tough plight of some unlucky bastard, but at home, we talk about how the person shouldn't have been so stupid or gullible to get into the fix.

Journalists (and politicians....especially politicians) are probably most guilty of pretending to care about things that no real person cares about.

At work, we talk about the importance of Constitutional process, or the corruption-sweeping powers of independent audits, or the fiscal forecast of the municipal budget. But in their personal lives, I'm sure that journalists and politicians are like everyone else .... we care about the fact that there aren't any good movies out right now, and traffic is a one-way drive to sucksville, and the fact that yeah you should be jogging more except that jogging is boring and it's really cold and ooo a new episode of Project Runway is on tonight.

As I said before, none of this is revolutionary. We all know that journalists and politicians have cast themselves apart from the rest of U.S. society. But the new thing for me is living on the other side and seeing just how drastically little everyone cares about the stuff that used to fill my day. I love the broad cross-section of Birmingham I've gotten to meet by selling coffee. I love that I don't just meet customers when they're complaining or trying to rat out their city councilman/neighbor/power company/illegal immigrant gardener. I love that I don't have to worry that conversations are going to drift instantly political as people try to figure out which side of the fence I'm really on. (Although it still happens, of course, but that's a gripe for another entry.)

So what this has led me to wonder is, what will I do with this lesson if I return to journalism? How can I stay more grounded in a field that seems to revel in elevating itself above the masses and then wonders why no one respects it?

I suppose that's the part I need to figure out.