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.