Sweet tea and Hard work

Most mornings after I drop Isaiah off at school I swing by McDonalds and get a gigantic sweet tea, because I’ve given up Dr. Pepper…again. Don’t smirk, it might stick this time.  Hush.

Anyway, four or five days a week I see roughly the same people and by in large they are exceedingly pleasant. I have so much respect for these incredibly hard working individuals who manage to smile as they serve everyone else all day, every day. I don’t think I would be quite so easy to get along with.

Am I the only one who somehow got the impression at some point that these type of jobs were somehow dishonorable, that the very people on whose shoulders our country is built are somehow less? I’m not exactly sure when I realized that this was a subconscious belief but when I did I was pretty disgusted with myself.

It seems like there’s an attitude that anyone who isn’t wealthy, or god forbid, needs help is somehow a drain on society. Well, we’ve needed help. We need help. Often it’s really hard to admit. It’s hard to know that we can’t just make it work like everyone else seems to be able to.

I’m frustrated by this. I’m frustrated that it seems that worth in our culture is so centered on money and the perception of perfection. We gasp in shock as life after life crumbles to the ground after years of plastered smiles, perfect houses, and perfectly styled name brand clothes. When are we going to get it? When am I going to get it?

I’d really like it if we would all get real but in the mean time I’m just going to work on me. I’m going to work on identifying my underlying beliefs, reinforcing the ones that are beautiful, and rejecting the ones that are ugly.

People have worth. The sweet lady who grinned like I had made her day when I complemented her fuzzy hat as she handed me my change has worth, big time worth. So do I, so do you, period.

Until next time.