The Back

I was driving my van the other day, through worries and back alleys-which is quite frequent nowadays-when I took a wrong turn. And while this is generally an annoyance to me, the extent of which results in the shaking of my fist or a few choice words escaping my lips, this incidence was quite different. For I ended up behind a strip mall, or I should say the back of each store front. The empty vacuous rear of dumpsters, chipped paint and merchants' secrets spilled over onto the narrow road chiefly frequented by semis and solitude. I spotted two or three employees of some establishment huddled together like an embarrassment, smoking their sticks and chattering. All the while I thought to myself how potent a contrast that exists between the delightfully decorative store fronts, with their inviting charm and welcoming décor, and their back doors. For I thought why not create an attractive presence throughout? Why must the unseen, save those unimportant to the mousetrap businesses, be ignored?

But perhaps I was too hard on the commercial real estate and its blatant superficiality. For anyone who has moved furniture will tell you what lies behind couches, entertainment centers and underneath beds. And it’s certainly not something one would be prepared to accentuate with vases or domestic accouterments. The fact is, we rarely sweep under our rugs or behind dressers. Guests who come to our homes never see what looks perfectly good from the front.

And aren't we glad our spouses or boyfriends and girlfriends were not introduced to our backsides. I mean to say barring other physical considerations, it is our smiles, our general countenances, our faces which drew them to us in the first place. Author G. K. Chesterton once commented that much of the grotesque ugliness we see in the world is merely what we see of its hindmost and not its van ward; where the product of a tidied front is evident. For there can not be clean laundry without dirty water poured out. Nor can there be cut diamonds without messy diamond dust spread somewhere. Our fronts, which we spend so much time polishing and refining, always produce dingy backsides. The secret is in knowing which, and appropriately associating with, what we cherish as our own front and what we throw away in the back.

Unmarketable Commodities

There is a story I once heard about a famous inventor who worked for a company before he gained recognition for his inventions. As I understand it, this individual developed an improvement on a machine he operated as an employee for this firm. As a result, he managed to get his work done with considerable ease due to the improvement on the device, even allowing him the opportunity to read various books while working. Well, to make a long story short, his boss was not happy with him for reading while he was supposed to be working, despite the fact he was getting his work done. Ultimately, he was fired. I find this to be characteristic of the workplace today. It is quite evident that there are bosses who are more interested in the appearance of working than the actual results of work itself.

But, this appearance of working really hard at something and actually getting something done are not always clear and identifiable. One may appear as though they are not doing much of anything when really they are. There have been many times when I have observed one of my coworkers perform a task, which I thought easy. But, when I tried to do it myself, it wasn’t as easy. As well, many times our accomplishments are not always seen, even though, what we have accomplished is beneficial to others. Consider the poets, the philosophers, the musicians who assemble little packages in factories while composing some lyric, some thought or some rhyme? What of their accomplishments? We may see little achievement at their job, but much achieved in the creation of a song, idea or verse. They very well maybe slower than others at their job, but of course, they are pumping out more than just assembled widgets, they are giving us songs, ideas and poems, but we don’t have to pay for them; save, the most popular, and thus published, works by the ‘lucky’ artists. Instead of being transported by trucks to stores, these achievements are spread by word of mouth, from one person to another, encouraging, enlightening and inspiring everyone who uses those artists’ products. You’ll never see them traded on the New York Stock Exchange, for after all, they are bartered for by the asking of a question, the listening of a tune hummed under one’s breath or the request of an elegy’s recitation.

I say, before we criticize the daydreamer for being a slacker, let us consider the possibility that we owe him or her for services already rendered. After all, we wouldn’t hesitate to spend money that we have earned on new furniture, an automobile, or any other aging commodity. But, what of those aging tunes we hear over and over again, or an old-fashioned idea? It is true that we purchase books and spend money on CDs, but where do you suppose the ideas expressed in those books came from, or the melodies in the new hit CD? Like all our appliances that eventually are worn out, our ideas get old and in need of either repair or the acquisition of new ones. I don’t expect we should actually pay money for such things, but we should pay a little respect for those who generate them. Can we really live without the songs that touch our hearts or the answers to those questions, which haunt our every thought? Let us thank those who give us the unmarketable commodities that we don’t have to pay for. The dreamer has to pay for it with, not only the labor of the mind, but with our discouraging name calling, like, ‘you’re lazy’, or ‘you don’t do anything.” It just may be the case that we are the lazy ones, not them.

The Uninformed Voter

I don't know about you, but I have just about had it up to here with political commentators: Especially with the presidential election upon us. Oh sure, every now and then I am tempted to tear myself away from a light-hearted sitcom to listen to some serious issues discussed. The problem is, every time I do, I begin to doubt my own ability to make political decisions. For instance, one political pundit will lash out at another citing various statistics gathered from financial reports, while the other will quote some obscure elected official in response. At the end of the debate, one is left with a pile of information no ordinary person can remember. This would probably be fine if it weren't for the commentators' instance on a voter being well informed. They often accuse the public of problems in our country because the ordinary citizens are not educating themselves on the issues. As a result, we voters elect individuals based on criteria that are irrelevant; so such talk show hosts may say. In view of this, I feel like a political tree branch, to where my position is blown from one side to another by the winds of rhetoric, presentation and just plain too much information for me to take in.

The more I thought about this issue of being well-informed, I began to wonder whether these 'commentators' and political talk show hosts knew enough themselves to make an informed decision. After all, why is it that they disagree so significantly with other individuals that have, presumably, the same level of knowledge on the issues? Then it dawned on me, maybe I can make political decisions without knowing what the news shows say I ought to know. In fact, it reminded me of the 70s TV show Three's Company. Oftentimes, in the show, one of the three roommates would engage in a conversion that was overheard by the other two roommates. But, since the eavesdroppers would only hear part of the conversion, they would infer all sorts of crazy scenarios from what they heard. Maybe this is what politics can be like. It is possible that since we cannot know the whole story of, say, the economy or other issues, perhaps we can only trust an individual who, being in contact with these problems every day, knows more than we do, or can, about the subject.

I don't want to come across as suggesting that we disregard the importance of knowing the issues. Indeed, there are many political issues, which are cut-and-dry, like social issues and the like. However, let's face it, if we only have part of the story, we can prove, or disprove anything. Sometimes we can only look to a presidential candidate's trustworthiness. If we disagree with their position on an overall vision for our country, that's one thing, but if we over hear what they have done, or will do, by a third party, let's just put our hands over our ears. If that is what some call uninformed, then so be it.