I could have been a…

Big White Hat wrote that his company laid off the entire section of workers, himself included, in spite of their having achieved production levels above and beyond what had been asked of them (linked via title bar) Here’s wishing them all well as they embark on finding a way to satisfy their economic responsibilities as well as providing them with meaningful work opportunities.

My dad once told me about an elderly fellow who’d worked for the Church of England most of his years in what we would call a janitor or custodial position. I’m not all that familiar with their formal names; but I have been told that every job has a title attached, regardless of the duties.

The hierarchy decided that everyone with a position of title would be required to meet certain minimum standards; to include the ability to read and write, as a means of presenting the Church as a progressive leader in the community. They called the janitor into the Bishop’s office and explained the new requirements while at the same time releasing him to the ranks of the unemployed.

Being up in years and finding himself walking home on a dismal winter’s evening he reached into his coat pocket for his favorite pipe and then for some tobacco only to find that he was out of pipe tobacco. He immediately set about finding a tobacconist as he wandered through the ever darkening streets. Block after block he walked in search of some tobacco for his pipe until he came to the realization that there just weren’t any.

He decided to open a tobacco shop; after all, some others might not wish to travel clear across town for fresh tobacco and it might prove to be a profitable venture. It took a bit of doing but after a while his shop became successful, enough so that he had to hire employees to help out.

In the afternoon he would leave the shop and walk the streets of London looking for other areas of town that might support additional tobacco shops. Years went by and he had shops all over London and had amassed quite a bit of money. He worried about keeping such large sums in his home and decided to put it into the local bank.

The banker sat in his chair going over the information and was startled to hear that this very accomplished businessman had been storing all that money in suit cases and storage bins around the house. “If you’ll fill out this form I will put that money to work for you, investing it and creating even more wealth for you.”

The old man hung his head in shame as he explained that he could neither read nor write and asked the banker to fill in the form for him. Blind sided by the revelation, “Just think what you could have done if you had learned to read and write”, the banker stammered.

“Yea, I could have been a janitor.”