REFLECTIONS FROM THE REARVIEW
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Random Gatherings
  • My Book
  • FAQ

Priceless... December 21, 2019

2/24/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
PENNY for your thoughts.
I don't have a red cent
showing up like a bad penny
waiting for the penny to drop
penny wise pound foolish
penny saved is a penny earned

If you repeat these sayings to your kids one day, they will ask you… what is a penny?

What IS a penny?

We disregard it, it IS after all, small change as the saying goes. Good riddance, it was more trouble than it was worth.

Sit down one day. Add up all the things in your life that you take for granted. And ask yourself which of them might be some day obsolete. You might be chocking up a list already the rotary telephone, the land line, fax machines, VCR, DVD players, analogue TV's, turntables, Sony Walkman, 35mm film, encyclopedias, floppy disks, phone books, the typewriter, newspapers, external hard drives, mailboxes, DVD movies, the pay phone, CASH, a writing pad, wrist watches. The list can be endless depending on how old you are.
Ok, you will never miss those things, they are just THINGS, aren't they? They are a piece of your history some day they will be gone, just as people never envisioned the chariot or the toga ever disappearing from the scene. Change is invariable constant. You can't avoid it. Some things must necessarily pass away.

This is a lament for the penny. Now a lament, is a literary form that is sometimes misunderstood. It's not about bitching and whining, or the insistence that everything new is bad and everything old is good. A lament marks the passing of something from the landscape of the human heart. While an object may be passing from the world in a physical sense, a lament is an expression of love, it seeks to preserve a memory that was good, or a quality of the heart that is associated with that object.

You all have associations with THINGS that are innocuous to anyone else. Think of what comes up in the human heart when you hear a certain song, or you smell a certain perfume, or the aroma of cooking. There are lots of elemental things that go on with people that have to do with the use of small insignificant objects whose passing no one would notice. For me, the penny is one of those things. It's not just a penny to me.

Let me tell you what I see when I conjure up this penny, and maybe you will see why I must register a lament for its passing.

When I look at this penny, first of all I see the Queen. Now she's in her 80's an not likely to be with us much longer, but I spent EVERY day at school early on, singing GOD SAVE THE QUEEN, not Oh Canada. If this penny had Pierre Trudeau or Stephen Harpur on it, it just wouldn't be the same. ROYALTY reminds me of comportment, that there are certain lofty ideals like loyalty and service to something corporate, bigger than myself that I must remember.

And then there IS the MONETARY value. One cent. It doesn't even count any more. AND YET, the apparent value of something is sometimes misinterpreted just like the saying, people who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

For me, to look at a penny, is to be TEN YEARS OLD all over again. It's a hot summer's day in late August with nothing to do and school is going to be starting again soon. Me and my best friend have hopped on our bikes with a fishing pole, a can of beans and some matches, a jackknife and a baloney sandwich in our backpack. We don't know exactly where we are going to go, who we are going to see, only that we are going to be home slightly after our curfew when the streetlights come on, tired in a good way and dirty all over in a way that has mined all the possibilities out of what comes our way. I'm in my bare feet. I haven't seen my shoes since June, and it is almost September so I know that even if I step on a piece of glass, it won't bother me because of the thick callouses on the bottom of my feet. My mother is going to go crazy and make me take a scrub brush to myself before I am EVER allowed to climb into bed tonight. I'm going to walk the railway tracks, the iron burning hot on my feet. If I find a penny, maybe I can put my ear to the rail and see if there is a train coming, and I can put the penny on the track and when the train passes by there will be one big flat piece of copper left behind. Or maybe me and my friend will find pop bottles on the side of the track that busy and carless teen-agers have tossed along the way. A pop bottle is worth two cents. that means that if I find ten of them, the guy at the corner store is going to carefully count out twenty red pennies into my palm and I will be momentarily rich from good fortune.

Twenty cents? What can that buy? What's the point of twenty cents?

You know dollar stores? They used to be called the five and dime. Twenty cents for a kid in about 1970 would buy a LOT. You could get you some of those little rockets that you could shoot with an elastic band, some of the parachute army men, maybe a water pistol or an elastic gun, a kaleidoscope, a rubber ball. Or, CANDY. We all forgot about candy because at some point you now buy it at the grocery store from bulk bins, and it is pricey. Used to be that penny candy was a staple of the economy of those mom and pop corner stores, and kids would be the main customer. At three for a penny, twenty cents would send you away with a considerable brown bag of candy. Liquorice babies, blackballs, Bazooka Joe bubble gum complete with the joke or the stuff you send for if you saved up your wrappers. Everybody knew that if you got enough wrappers, you could send away for a submarine, it's true my friend heard about a kid who did it. I can't remember how many wrappers except that he must have saved up for a whole year. You can get Batman playing cards with some gum in it even thought the gum is really old and hard. You can trade those with your friends. I have all of them except for the Joker which is really hard to get. I keep on getting Batman and Robin over and over again, and I keep trying to trade those off. Got it, got it, got it, got it, need it, need it, need it, got it…. And then there are the foam strawberries or bananas. A bag of candy is sitting for an afternoon in luxury up in a tree fort somewhere, in the joy of gluttony and watching the rest of the world go by. Maybe it's buying an ice cold orange crush from the fridge for five of those pennies and sitting luxuriously with your friends on the shore, after a dip in the river takes the edge off the heat. Five cents could also buy a superman comic book that always had that Charles Atlas ad we all were going to send away for so we could get muscles too, and beat up the bullies. This penny, is the ultimate buying power of pure fun with nothing attached to it. It's not money that is destined for any savings account or designated to pay any bill.

I have this penny and I'm going to carry it in my pocket. What is impossible to see, is that there is a big piece of me in this penny, that is worth more than I can add up. It's the chance for me to be ten years all over again, with that first blush of independence, some money in my pocket, and endless possibilities for what the day might bring up. See this penny, pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck. The value of this tiny one cent piece is a world of reverie and endless possibilities. It's the part of me that will forever be ten years old.

Are you feeling the love? Some things in life, some memories especially, are worth more than money. And that, my fellow toastmasters, is my two cents worth
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    UNCOMMON
    ​THOUGHTS

    ...about common things. 
    ​

    Categories

    All
    Accidental Story
    Activist
    Adjusting The Recipe
    Adult Admission
    A Flannery O'Connor Moment
    After The Tiger
    A High Christology
    A Little Bit Redneck
    A Little Lower Than The Angels
    All About Widgets
    Allah Wallahi
    Al Low Vs The Man
    All Saints
    A Long List Of Thank Yous
    Amazing Grace
    A Month Of Sundays
    An Offer You Can’t Refuse
    Antique
    A Pile Of Wood And A Plan
    Are We There Yet?
    Artifact
    At Hand
    Attending To Beauty
    At War
    Bad-Ass Outlaw
    Bad Faith
    Badlands
    Baked Boiled Or Fried?
    Balcony Lady
    Beautiful By Design
    Beauty For Ashes
    Being Human
    Belial
    Beneficence
    Beware Of Men Who Cry
    Big Buts Of The Bible
    Blessed Are The Pew Warmers
    Bound For Beauty
    British Invasion
    Bronte Oak
    Bucket List
    But If Not
    But Is It Sandable
    But Is It True?
    Buyer Beware
    Camp Of The Unknown God
    Carlton The Delivery Man
    Chaos
    Cherry Top
    Class Monitors And Safety Patrols
    Clothing Optional
    Cloud Of Witnesses
    Contra Mundum
    Couldn't Not
    Counting The Cost
    Covid Cut
    Creed
    Crucified Man
    Dangerous
    Dangerous Chemicals Of My Youth
    Dieu Et Mon Droit
    Different Drum
    Distressed
    Doing The Lord's Work
    Do It Yourself
    Do-Over
    Do Something!
    Dreaming And Doing
    Edifice
    Egging Armour Hill
    Even As I Am Known
    Even Me
    Even Stranger Things
    Fallow Season
    Family Bible
    Family Business
    Fellowship Of The Brush
    Field Of Faith
    First World Chair
    Fit As You Go
    Fixing The Machine
    Flawed People
    Flock Of Angels
    Follow The Money
    For A Time Such As This
    Fortissimo!
    French Horn
    From A Distance
    Frozen Man
    Funny Words
    Genetic Lottery
    Gifting
    God Calling...
    Good Bones
    Good God Almighty
    Good Government
    Good Luck Skippy
    Gott Mit Uns
    Greatest Is Love
    Gross Anatomy
    Grunt
    Haka!
    Hammer And Tong
    Hands And Eyes
    Happy Rooster
    Hearing Voices
    Hello My Juan
    Helping God Show Off
    Hidden In The Secret Place
    High Dudgeon
    History Bites
    Hockey Tape And Rubber Bands
    Holy Disorder
    Home Economics
    I AM
    I Cannot Help You
    I Could Be Wrong
    I Dare You
    Idiots
    If You Build It
    If You Get There Before I Do
    Im Khalil
    Impossibly Cute
    In A Strange Land
    Incarnation
    Influencer
    In My Own Time
    Inner FIfteen Year Old
    In Praise Of The Middle
    In The Details
    In The Usual Manner
    Invader
    Judge Not
    Just A Few Words
    Justice
    Just In Our Own Time
    Just Like God
    Keep Calm And...
    Keeper
    Keeping House
    Keeping On Keeping On
    KJV
    Knock Yourself Out
    Kumbaya
    Kybo
    Lamentations
    Lemonade
    Less Is More
    Let Me Count The Ways
    Let's Go RIde A BIke
    Linked In
    Little Boxes
    Liturgy
    Lo And Behold
    Logos
    LOL
    Looking Back On The Forward Looking
    Looking For Some Real Good News
    Lord Jesus It’s A FIRE
    Lorem-ipsum-dolor
    Lost-and-found
    Luck Of The Stable
    Magical
    Make-a-baby-laugh
    Make It Nice
    Maker
    Maker’s Mark
    Ma-pitom
    Marbles-in-spring
    Measure Of A Man
    Memory Box
    Men In Loincloths
    Men's Barber Shop
    Middle Ground
    Middleman
    Mistakes All In
    Montreal Spice
    More
    Morse Code
    Mosh Pit
    My Neighbour
    Myth Of Sisyphus
    My Wife The Movie Star
    Name Calling
    Natural
    Neighbour
    New Day
    New Wine
    Next To Godliness
    Next Year Country
    No Fancy Diagram Needed
    No King But Caesar
    None Deserving
    North Of Ground Level
    Nothing Particularly Important
    Nothing Personal
    Not Waiting For Godot
    No Wonder
    Oak
    One Coffee At A Time
    One Smart Farmer
    One Thing
    On Richard Rohr
    On The Lam
    On Writing Clearly
    Ordinary Time
    Out Of Egypt
    Over And Again
    Paint Over That
    Paper Boy
    Particularity
    Particulate Matter
    Part Of The Tradition
    Pater Noster
    Patina
    Pelagian
    Perfect
    Perfect Crime
    Perfect Ride
    Philosemite
    Pilate's Dilemma
    Pinky Swear
    Place At The Table
    Playing Favourites
    Pop-a-corn!
    Potato War
    Preaching Parrot
    Predators
    Prince
    Print Shop
    Prisoner Of Jesus Christ
    Proof Text
    Psalm 1
    Psalm 19
    Put Away The Books
    Putting Up The Lights
    Reduce Reuse Recycle
    Restoration
    Rosemary And The Drug Dealers
    Sandwich
    Say My Name
    Scars
    Second Naiveté
    Seeing Red
    Seven Sixty-Five
    Shouting From The Areopagus
    Shrove-tuesday
    Silent-witness
    Small-c
    Small-graces
    Sore-afraid
    Squat
    Starting With What Is True
    Street Food
    Superstar
    Take-a-punch
    Takedown
    Talking-head
    Talking Your Parents Down From The Ledge
    Telling-the-story
    Thanksgiving
    The-best-for-last
    The Bliss Of Ignorance
    The Church Invisible
    Thecrossingking
    The Evil Day
    The-general
    The Great Mystery
    The-joys-of-hash
    Themysteryofthecheshirecat
    The-particularity-of-place
    The-quickening
    Therefore-choose-life
    The Table-ness Of A Table
    The Way
    Though One Be Raised From The Dead
    Thoughts On Sixty
    Three Jews And A Gentile
    Thrice Wise
    Throwing The Spaghetti Against The Wall
    Timeless
    Time Vs Time
    Tim Falladay
    Tims No More
    Tonto And Me
    Touching Stones
    Trevor’s Super Bad Day
    Trick Key
    Tubafore!
    Unbelievable
    Under A Bush? HELL NO!
    Uninvited
    Unspectacular
    Use Gently
    Watching Paint Dry
    Wayside Chapel
    Weaker Sex (?)
    We Stand On Guard For Thee
    We Were Waiting
    What Are You Prepared To DO?
    What Lazarus Knew
    When Cows Fly
    When Odd Becomes Interesting
    Why I Still Like Cowboys
    Witness
    Woke
    Wood Show
    Woodworking Lessons In Empathy
    Words
    Words... The Right Tool
    Worthy Adversary
    You And Me And Rob

    RSS Feed

Contact Us

    Subscribe Today!

Submit
Picture
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Random Gatherings
  • My Book
  • FAQ