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The Madonna Timeline: Song #89 – ‘Intervention’ – Spring 2003

In the spring of 2003 I was working at the Thruway Authority, in an office of men, in Construction Management no less (quite a far cry from where I began, and where I am currently – in offices almost entirely stocked with women). It’s not a sexist thing to say that working with women is different than working with men. And I hope you won’t find it sexist of me to say that it’s often easier to work with men than women (because I hear that from women far more than men).

Sometimes it’s such a pleasure
Sometimes I wanna tear it all down
It’s easy to be lazy
And hard to go away from the crowd

I know the road looks lonely
But that’s just Satan’s game
And either way my baby
We’ll never be the same

Operating as the secretary to the Director, it was actually one of the more pleasant working experiences I’ve had, not only because the Director was cool but because there was so much less drama. Guys disagree differently than girls – not necessarily in a better way, just differently. I always knew where I stood with the guys, and though they had their own gossipy cliques and catty comments, if you confronted them they’d usually give you a straight answer. The women I had worked with previously hadn’t done that. They’d smile and pretend to like you and then you’d find out they were talking shit about you ten minutes earlier. That kind of passive-aggressive nonsense I didn’t abide.

In the blink of an eye everything could change
Say hello to your life, now you’re living
This is it from now on
It’s a brand new day
It was time to wake up from this dream (from this dream)

But what does that have to do with ‘Intervention’? I’m not sure. It was just the song that was playing in my car as I remembered switching from an office of women to an office of men. And if there’s one person that always gets me thinking about the differences between men and women, it’s Madonna.

Song #89 – ‘Intervention’ – Spring 2003

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