David Friedli

By the Dashboard Lights

11/22/07

Words of Gratitude

Thank you.

The preceding words go out to those people in jobs that provide little opportunity for thanks.

Garbage collectors. Road maintenance workers. The guy at the grill behind the gal who asks you, “Do you want fries with that?” Sometimes at least, she gets a mumbled thanks for handing over a grease-stained bag of transfat-ladened burgers and, yes I did want those, fries.

Thank you.

The preceding words go out to those people who serve in positions that don’t pay a wage.

Perhaps those in such positions get a small stipend or the opportunity for an occasional conference in a city an hour’s drive away that simply makes them more aware—painfully aware—of the responsibility and liability they have in making choices that affect not only the present but the future.

School board members come to mind. As my friend and former State senator Matt Connealy once told me, “Serving on the school board is not a great way to make friends and influence people if you have political aspirations.” Or words to that effect. That was the message anyway.

Church council, trustee, session or board member. It is difficult to “walk in faith” when the debits are larger than the credits and the number of parishioners in the pews shrinks every year.

Volunteers for any variety of service projects, study committees and private fund-raising, especially if those efforts are undertaken in a small town.

Small town residents often feel “tapped out” by requests to serve and/or give. They, like John McClain who is in the process of single-handedly saving the lives of hundreds of people in the “Die Hard” movie but gets no thanks, let alone assistance, feel “pretty sincerely unappreciated”. Or words to that effect.

Those who hold positions of civil authority are pretty sincerely unappreciated.

These are folks who have to make decisions one day and must face the public every day after that, living with their decision.

Thank you. Not because your efforts please everyone. They never will.

Thank you because you care enough to serve.