Importance
I grabbed the stack of mail out of my box at work. "How you doing John," the security guard said. "Oh, pretty good," I replied, "I just came in here to throw away my mail." I continued, "Someone spent a whole lot of time designing and printing this stuff. Someone else went to a lot of trouble to deliver it to me and I am just throwing it away." The security guard laughed as I dropped a stack of catalogs and advertisements into the trashcan.
It was true. It is a lot of work to make a catalog. Someone takes great pains to illustrate and photograph the merchandise. The copy has to be written and the fact must be checked. It goes to the printer and a lot of money changes hands.
Mailing the final product isn't cheap either and the mailmen across the country fly, drive, and finally hand the finished item to me in my location somewhere across the country from where its journey began.
What is my response to all of this effort and all of this expense? I throw it in the trashcan without even looking at it.
We all do it.
It is funny and sad at the same time. It is the human condition. You have no idea what I do or put up with throughout the day. The stresses with which I deal and the obstacles I struggle to overcome are known best to me.
Likewise, I cannot completely appreciate the things you must deal with on a daily basis. From the hamburger flipper at McDonalds to the checkout girl at Wal-Mart to the high school history teacher to the dentist; we all work and our jobs have their moments.
Maybe a little more understanding and appreciation is in order. I like it when I flip the light switch and the room illuminates. I love to walk into a store and have a choice of all kinds of goodies reasonably priced. It is a luxury to have gas available to put in the old gas tank at any price. Try going without it for a while and you won't complain about price.
We are at the mercy of others in many respects. We are interdependent. A society is that way. The alternative is all of us do everything for ourselves. We don't all have to grow our own food; farmers are doing that for us. We don't have to make our own clothes; other folks do that too.
So whatever you do, thank you for doing it. You are part of something big. You contribute to a versatile society. We all benefit from what you do. We give and we receive. What we do as a group is greater than the sum of its parts.
Think about that the next time you toss some junk mail without opening it.
Until the next time
John Strain