on contracts and the swearing of oaths
"My hand to God..."
Truth be told, Jersey Boys is well out of the gate by now. By the time most musicals make it to Atlanta, they've collected their requisite Tony's and Drama Desk awards, and most often the actors garnering such prestige have long since moved onto other projects. Still, Jen and I hadn't seen Jersey Boys and were excited, despite being decidedly younger than the generation that first knew the hits of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
The show was great--sort of a juke-box musical ala Mamma Mia! in the way that it showcased the music of Frankie and the Four Seasons, but biographical in nature and theme. There was a sense of story that sucked in my generation who will occasionally confessed to getting sucked into every VH1 Behind the Music special, or, on particularly rainy, sleepy weekends, an E! True Hollywood Story marathon. Jersey Boys met and exceeded all expectations as it told the fascinating story of Frankie, Bob, Tom, and Nick (and every other iteration in between).
But easily the most pervasive theme/catchphrase (that didn't include all kinds of colorful "Jersey language") was when Tommy DeVito, the small-town fixer/mob boss/musician, would recite various details of the early life and times of he and Frankie's relationship. Almost without fail, Tommy would conclude each soliloquy with a raised right hand and the simple phrase "My hand to God..."
It was a punchline--a smooth-line from a smooth operator who had never kept any word, regardless of his hand position. There's a certain amount of heart to Tommy, but a basic ruthlessness that is equal parts greed and machismo.
Without giving away the entire plot of the thing, suffice it to say that eventually another member of the band is added, Bob Gaudio, a piano man-songwriter. By the end of Act I, Bob and Frankie have worked out a side-deal. When Bob starts to draw up an official contract for the partnership, Frankie interrupts him and says "We make a Jersey contract." offering only a handshake and his word.
"Let your yes be yes..."
I don't even think by brain hesitated when it hyper-linked to the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount
"Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
People swore oaths all the time--it was the only way to seal a deal. Even Yahweh's covenant with Abram is sealed by a ritual ans swearing of an oath.
Frankie's promised hand to Bob was as tight of a contract as any sworn statement before a court official, but largely because each party agreed to participate in it...which got me thinking...
"...We're just skeptical about it's worth--of it being the the only thing."
I had read earlier in the week that the latest class of Harvard Business School had initiated a sort of Hippocratic Oath for Corporate America. The "MBA Oath" as it has come to be known pledges ethical decision making in business that prevents the willful deception, use and abuse of individuals and funds for willful and deliberate gain. Some have called it a sort of "anti-Madoff clause", but that's scapegoating a bit (Madoff got all his moves from Zaccheus, after all).
What was perhaps most compelling about the interview were the two students interviewed. They were quite explicit about their belief that the business world is and should remain explicitly "for profit". What they rejected, however, was the now infamous me-generation credo of Gordon Gecko in Wall Street that "Greed is good." In the words of one student "I don't want to be 75 and look back...and realize I've left all these people in my wake along the way." only to hear the quick caveat of his colleague declaring they are "for profit......We're just skeptical about it's worth--of it being the the only thing."
Sowing Wild Oaths...
Maybe it's the randomness of the idea--from the stage, to the Sermon on the Mount, to the speaker of my car on a Sunday morning, but I'd like to think there's a pattern here.
What I find most interesting is that these business school graduates are swearing an oath--their "yes" has been returned "insufficicent funds because of words like Ponzi, AIG and executive exuberance. They have to swear an oath to their customers, their colleagues--their fellow humanity--that they will carry out their business with a sense of purpose--that "business ethics" are not irreconcilable.
Maybe their onto something or maybe their just getting back to Frankie and Bob. The question that lingers in my mind is what is our oath as a consumer?
If Bob broke the "Jersey contract" then Frankie would no longer be bound by it, and vice versa.
Inasmuch as those we entrust with our finances are swearing to behave responsibly, I have to wonder...what's my consumer responsibility? Where do I sign and what exactly should I be signing on for? How, in the words of Gandhi, do I begin to differentiate between what is enough for everyone's need, and yet insufficient for my own greed?
Maybe I should settle for a handshake.
