Dear Reader:

Yesterday I ran across a humorous, but also poignant, commentary on how we treat the pizza deliverer…because it tells a lot about our own character.

I have had many after school and part-time jobs from the age of fifteen (legal work age back then in SC) through college and even after….on weekends after teaching all week. They were all great learning experiences…some better than others…but still lessons about life were learned at both ends.

I remember (besides babysitting) my first job was at a very inexpensive shoe store in Laurens (we’re talking really cheap here) and boy, was that a lesson in patience. Feet that were never meant for a size 8 (were an 11) were pushed into the shoe by the consumer’s desire to be able to tell everyone her shoe size. (I waited on a lot of Cinderella’s step-sisters when it came to finding a fit for the “glass slipper.”)

My next job was at a peach cannery outside Laurens…I gained a new respect for people who work assembly lines….yellow jackets, peach  juice inside your gloves that ate at your skin, and the stress of keeping up with the pace of the peaches coming at you…just about took me under.

During college I was on work scholarship doing different jobs each year…ranging from secretarial work for one Bible professor (scary) and Senorita Horton in the Spanish department-never knew what she wanted me to do-she spoke in Spanish… but finally later I was promoted to my major-the history department and got to work with the professor I had a crush on….the good old days of girlhood crushes.

During the summers between my college years Brooke and I worked as real estate agents and waitresses in Greenville. After I began teaching I worked Saturdays for (Gail Thornton) for her famous artistic uncle –  Sammy Ravenel Gailard in his art studio. I really enjoyed that experience. He gave me this fabric painting when I left that I still treasure to this day.

Of course there were also Christmas and other holiday jobs along the way…but never was I a pizza driver. Still, my own experiences really do make me appreciate what so many people do to make a living or supplement their income for their families…they are the “lost men/women” FDR talked about on his fireside chats...the backbone and symbol of American strength and perseverance for the American dream. (Yet they are looked down upon by many consumers of pizza!)

Sarah Adams has discovered several principles of life through the treatment and acceptance of the pizza deliverer….here are a few excerpts.

Awakin Weekly: “Be Cool to the Pizza Guy”

Sarah Adams

Principle 1: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in empathy. Let’s face it: We’ve all taken jobs just to have a job because some money is better than none. I’ve held an assortment of these jobs and was grateful for the paycheck that meant I didn’t have to share my Cheerios with my cats. In the big pizza wheel of life, sometimes you’re the hot bubbly cheese and sometimes you’re the burnt crust. It’s good to remember the fickle spinning of that wheel.

Principle 2: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in honor and it reminds me to honor honest work. Let me tell you something about these dudes: They never took over a company and, as CEO, artificially inflated the value of the stock and cashed out their own shares, bringing the company to the brink of bankruptcy, resulting in 20,000 people losing their jobs while the CEO builds a home the size of a luxury hotel. Rather, the dudes sleep the sleep of the just.

Principle 3: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in equality. My measurement as a human being, my worth, is the pride I take in performing my job — any job — and the respect with which I treat others. I am the equal of the world not because of the car I drive, the size of the TV I own, the weight I can bench press, or the calculus equations I can solve. I am the equal to all I meet because of the kindness in my heart. And it all starts here — with the pizza delivery dude.

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So until tomorrow…”Tip him well, friends and brethren, for that which you bestow freely and willingly will bring you all the happy luck that a grateful universe knows how to return.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

• Kaitlyn and Tommy came to Summerville last evening for our three week belated birthday dinner for Tommy. They decided on Continental Corner since Eva’s isn’t open at night and we all had a delicious meal and dessert.
• One good thing about us being late getting together is that I just kept on throwing change in Tommy’s birthday jar so he has hopefully made out like a “fat cat” this year when he trades the coins in for bills. (This annual tradition all started many years ago when Tommy was still in public school…it was so hard to have a birthday party right after Christmas….people were gone and stretched to the limit over Christmas. The thought of buying another present was a tough sale. So from December 30 to the next December 29 I just started putting all my change in a jar and it is quite remarkable how much one ends up with by the end of the year. Good luck this year Tommy!