From The Storyteller
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Hello All: This week the motivation for my problem solving skills gets revealed. Enjoy, Doug
Salt “Well you really earned your salt today”, job foreman to me roughly 50 years ago as I finished digging a four-foot-deep, 10-yard trench. Me: “Huh?” Since that fateful day I’ve heard that phrase “earned your salt” repeatedly without really understanding what it meant. Over time however, I learned that during the days of wind powered ships, they would be at sea for weeks at a time. This meant they had to bring with them everything necessary to sustain life. Storage was limited, and salt as one of those things they needed to live, so to “be worth your salt” was a compliment. Which naturally caused me to think about what we need to survive. Water to drink, oxygen to breathe, and food to eat were quick answers, but the spring of 2020 added a twist to the idea of food and the things we hunger for. Because interacting with others became difficult, being hungry for that human contact became self-evident. The folks who exercised at a gym (definitely not me) spoke about how much they missed it, while kids talked about missing their friends at school, and teachers talked about missing their students. Which led me to begin identifying some of the things that satisfied this contact hunger, including creative musical concerts via the internet, more family time, baking bread, online classes, Zoom meetings, and folks learning new ways to work from home. This naturally led me to think of Pilgrims and the Mayflower. Yes, they did bring their salt, but they didn’t bring written traffic laws. The laws about stop signs, one-way streets and parking meters weren’t created until they were needed. Observation: Once a hunger arises, answers can be found. Moral: Adapting and modifying to overcome our hungers, can give our lives a positive new purpose. |