Here’s To the Workers

Biscuit, after his bath and haircut. He is so handsome! But it is not his favorite thing.

Today, I am grateful for all the people in the world who know how to do things that I don’t know how to do. Even today, on an ordinary day, I was helped by so many. I am grateful for dog groomers. I am grateful that I can drop my dog off with trained experts who are so gentle and good to him. They tell him he is the best dog ever, and scratch his head, and don’t complain about cleaning up his dribbles because he gets a little nervous when it’s time for a bath. I can leave and do errands and come back a few hours later and his ears are clean and his toenails are trimmed and he smells good again. And I did not have to do it!

I am grateful for teachers who show up day after day, even in this terrible COVID time. They prep lessons and corral unruly children and care about them.  They are encouraging my son, who is a sophomore in high school. Every day, they lead lively discussions about the Constitution, and model yoga poses, and share the history of the theatre, and thoroughly explain the importance of a good thesis statement, all while wearing masks and enforcing the mask rules for their students, which is not fun for anyone. They are teaching, in spite of everything that is going on now. It is a marvelous thing.

I am grateful for the people who work in restaurants (and grocery stores), who unload the boxes from the delivery trucks, and chop the onions and celery, who prepare delicious food that I don’t have the skill to make at home. I am grateful for the workers at the Costco tire center. Today, I dropped off my car, and came back an hour later and my tires had been expertly rotated and balanced. And, once again, I didn’t have to do it!  Later, as I was getting ready to leave, I watched the tire center employees unload tires from a delivery truck. I don’t know why, but it never occurred to me that the hundreds of tires on display at Costco did not just magically appear on the showroom floor, perfectly stacked, all in a row.  They have to be taken out of a truck, one at a time, and rolled from person to person, until they reach their perfect spot.

How much more difficult would my life be if I had to do all these things myself? (Honestly? My life wouldn’t just be difficult. It’d be pretty much impossible.)

If I had to figure out how to groom my sweet dog, or arrange how to get tires from the manufacturer and onto my car? How often do I take for granted all of the gifts that people offer through their work?

Biscuit before his haircut. He could barely see.

So here’s to the dog groomers, tire rotators, and teachers. Also hair stylists, doctors, dentists, truck drivers, cashiers, tomato pickers, construction workers, computer programmers, counsellors, state workers, federal employees, snow plow drivers, landscapers, farmers, engineers. To those who load the trucks. To those who unload the trucks. To those who make the salsas and cut the onions and wrap the burritos and give out change. You might not  realize it, and I don’t often remember to tell you, but your work matters. You matter.  Your skills and talents bless me.  I couldn’t have done this day without you. Thank you.