I had a dream a couple months ago. I was vacuuming the floor of the world. I had this huge wet vac/vacuum cleaner contraption and I was hard at work. Sometimes I I seem to do more work in my sleep than when I’m awake. Rest easy everyone, I’m cleaning up for you in my dreams (whether you need it or not).
I often write and speak about how important it is that we value who we are and not judge ourselves by what we do. I truly believe and understand this. I live by it and know I’m perfect just sitting here. Today I also thought about what we all do. We often think that one job is more significant than others. But, it occurred to me that every job – every task – is absolutely significant. In fact, everything we do effects everything around us.
So, I’m sitting in my car at a stop light (a typical occurrence in Atlanta) this morning. It’s taken me 10 minutes to travel 1/2 mile because someone decided to put a stop light in a place where it’s more of an obstruction than a help (as I see it, anyway). Now it takes me and others 10 more minutes to travel down a road because someone decided to put this light in. Hundreds of people sit at this light daily. Sitting there I began this conversation in my head with an imaginary person who put this light in. I emphatically told him about this light and that he had to fix this situation. In my head he said, “What difference does it make? My job is insignificant. All I do is adjust the traffic lights. What difference would my adjusting one light make?”
“Huge,” I said. “Hundreds of people pass by here everyday. Parents now have to leave home 10 minutes earlier and may have less time with their kids. One kid could have an important question that doesn’t get answered and this could affect his entire life. Another person may have an injury and decide to drive to the hospital down the street. The delay could cause blood loss that could cause loss of function, or even . . . .”
I got a bit carried away and went on and on. But one thing became very clear to me: Every job is important. We may think we’re insignificant, but each one of us has an effect on a myriad of people. One guy adjusts on light and it affects hundreds of people, and potentially thousands of people related to the hundreds. We don’t need me to vacuum the world. We’re all working together, whether we believe it or not. What we may need is more appreciation of who we are and how much we all matter.