You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Merle Travis, 16 Tons
So the grasshopper said, in the most dignified voice, using the most proper English he had learned from a University, "I don't know if I could selflessly commit myself to the unending monotony of scurrying back and forth carrying bits of food 1,000 times my own weight."
The lady grasshopper, who looked fabulous, was amused. Her family had started a chain of hotels years ago. Because she was so fabulously well-to-do, work took on a new meaning to her. She perceived her role in the universe to be part vixen in part cultural icon. She looked at the sculpted hind legs of the grasshopper next to her and could only imagine how wonderful he must be in an act of freeform procreation. To express her willingness to go skanky, she said “I love work, I can watch it all day." And then rubbed her legs together like a common cricket.
But enough about anthropomorphic insects…
For generations on generations on generations; and generations before that survival was based on production. You were defined by your work, the quality of your work, the amount of work you did and the progress you made as a direct result of your work.
If you didn't work, you didn't eat. The tears of starving children and the lack of color in your wife's cheek; drove many a man into the freezing predawn darkness.
Produce or perish.
80 years ago it was easier to talk about what you had than what you were missing. The litany of things gone without, could fill a library. The treasures in a family, were the health of the children and a few precious heirlooms.
If children had ribbons in their hair, dad was doing alright. You displayed your achievements by providing your children with things you only dreamed of having.
You felt lucky to have a job, to make something, to support your family, to share in the active improvement of the community.
If you wanted more, you worked harder.
80 years ago, the customer was King. The way you treated the patrons of your business, reflected upon your business, and your place in the community. “Thank you” was a truncated form of “Without your business, my family and I would starve, I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to serve you, I can barely contain myself.”
We will now observe a brief timeout for the people over 50 to wipe a tear from their eye as they think about their saintly grandparents. At the same time the people under 40 can attempt to stop shaking their heads at the obvious maudlin display of a reality unknown to their generation.
And now a thought from Joni Mitchell:
Well maybe it's the time of year,
or maybe it's the time of man.
I don't know who I am,
but you know life is for learning.
- Woodstock
Over the last 40 years United States of America has changed. Where once society valued production, thrift and accomplishment; the new vanguard is expression.
What you feel is much more important than what you know. What you do is not nearly as important as what you think about it. An equal respect is awarded to all endeavors, whether they are successful or abysmal failures.
Life's journey is pursued without a map, mileposts, stated destination or itinerary. After all, life is for learning… But you know that.
Meanwhile back in Bugville...
Joseph Smith told the Mormons to pray. Suddenly from the West the skies grew dark, as if the dusk was moving to meet the midday sun. The faithful looked up and saw an ever darkening cloud of gulls diving from the sky to consume the locusts.
They wept, God had respected their work, they would be saved and they would be thankful.
Later that night, along the banks of the Great Salt Lake, a young seagull remarked to his friend, “Earlier today I ate the most attractive grasshopper, I think it was getting it's freak on with a well sculpted and highly educated katydid."
Tomorrow... Part III
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