Who thought to make a piano!? Insane!! And then, who invented music theory to go along with it? Masochists!!!
One thing I have really learned through this whole process is healthy lesson in all the amazing systems we live with every day and take for granted. When this started, I thought remodeling meant picking out new paint colors and maybe putting in a new window. I could see the young couple, remodeling, late night with a great sound track, paint splattered white blankets covering all the furniture, the kids tucked in bed (or off site somehow) while the young couple stayed up till the wee hours “remodelingâ€. Oh, how tired they will be the next day, but they will persevere with the sheer adrenaline rush of having done “everything themselvesâ€.
Well, that is how it looks on HDTV, right? And they are onto something, because when we started this channel, there was no HDTV! I just got that idea in my head somehow, and figured I could do any amount of remodeling because I don’t mind working hard, I’m strong, I like to push myself, and I love recycling old things into the present. And I’ve always believed I was a clever problem solver, and could improvise easily. Funny. I don’t know shit about remodeling. I don’t know shit about materials, and drywall finish possibilities, and how an HVAC system works, and the massive system of plumbing that allows us to flush our toilets everyday and have tap water. There is so much to know. That is a whole new part of my brain that has opened up. And my biggest takeaway is how little I know, not how much.
I never really thought about these things before. I used to think that I didn’t really participate in society, and that I lived on the fringe and didn’t have a civic obligation to any of the regular world. I could avoid fast food chains, I could eat less, not eat meat, buy recycled things at a thrift store, have an older car, and I believed all that qualified me for some sort of society exemption for gratefulness. I was so wrong.
It never occurred to me all the things that we take for granted. The air vent in my car for example. This was engineered. This was manufactured. This was shipped. This was assembled. This was sold to me, and everyday it works. I mean, how many lives were dedicated to the making of this one small thing? I turn on the water to do the dishes. I think about the water towers, I think of massive pipes under our streets, all under pressure, that guarantee that we will have water. Not just any water, not polluted water, but water that has been treated, and made potable by the city I live in. That I could drink. I could drink the water I use to flush my toilet! What riches! How many people have dedicated their lives to making sure I can drink my toilet water? WOW!
Like the food we eat. I mean, I am so glad I don’t have to spend my life making Laura Lee knock off Cheerios. But someone does. There is a massive factory somewhere, and they organize the graphics, the cardboard, the sealed plastic bag, and the production of these totally unimportant “cheeriosâ€. And when I get them, and open the bag, it isn’t full of roach wings and weevils. How lucky!! Why? Because some health department somewhere makes them follow rules, and now I can mostly safely eat things I buy. No weevil off brand cheerios! WOW!
The farmers. I mean, who wants to live in the middle of nowhere and try to deal with government subsidies and large seed manufactures and chemical reps and off road diesel stations all so they can plant massive amounts of crops and get them to the shelves in the grocery store? Who wants to run a chicken house? How do you even DO THAT? Who wants to manage the infrastructure of the Kroger national headquarters? How complicated!! Raises, payrolls, chain of command, etc etc and still someone has to make sure the bathrooms are cleaned. AND it gets done!! Humans are so strange and so amazing. The fuel we use, the natural gas/propane we cook with, the tires on our car, the c-section I had, the dog’s awesome flea medicine, windshield wipers, the electronics in my phone, the drywall finishing options, my sandals. Oh. my. gawd. It never ends. I could just about shock myself into speechlessness if I really kept making this list. Even the years when I thought I wasn’t participating according to my calculations, I was still driving a car around the U.S., I was still pumping gasoline, I was still camping out in a tent, I was still using a backpack that was made in a foreign country engineered to use the latest backcountry technology. I was hiking on trails that were blazed by some group of dedicated folks, I was using a map made by engineers and artists. I flew on airplanes. I was still drinking coffee, and I mean everyday. That is no simple feat. To make coffee available? I mean, you can’t even GROW coffee in the continental United States of America. Talk about a group effort!!!
My dad always talked about how grateful he was that there were garbage men. And people who liked office jobs. Like forty years worth of office job. (and so forth and so on)  And what he meant was that all those people, who work jobs that wouldn’t suit you, all those people set the stage for you to do your exact thing. I hear you now, dad. I hear you loud and clear.
Okay, try this. The restaurants we eat at!! Holy shit, there are so many things to consider, and by the time you sit down at a table somewhere, you are reaping the rewards from someone who has put it all out there. They have completed that list. THE LIST. The risky mysterious list. And they did that, because they had an idea, and it seemed like such a good idea that sleep was lost, and debt was acquired. And all the variables have been answered as best as this person could figure. Sometimes it is a win, sometime it is not, but it is inarguably a shit ton of work, and this person did that so you could sit down and experience their idea. Woah. Mind blown.
I’m there now. We are going to present this restaurant that we have been working on for years, this building that has been in our life for a decade, and people are going to make cavalier remarks about how this or that could be better, or that they don’t like some decision we made, and I sure hope I don’t give them a lecture on all the systems that make our world work for the unlikely event that they would even have had the chance to come in and find something unlikeable in my years long string of choices.
I’ll try to smile, and not lecture about all the strange things I got to encounter along the way, how I have changed my mind about my entitlement so much, that I now know that you cannot opt out of life and participation in the world, and how we all make things work everyday with every choice that we make, and that when you really boil it all down, most humans are working as hard as they can to make the world progress. It’s pretty cool. So thanks everyone! Don’t stop!!
So your trying to tell me YOU know how to do this?!!!
I think this guy might have had it all figured out. Maybe this is all his fault. (A player piano roll! I mean, give me a break! A player piano? Insane!!!)
