My Two Cents Worth

I had a couple of pennies cross my desk on Monday. Normally I wouldn't have paid much attention, but these two deserved a closer inspection. Both were minted in 1968 and - 41 years later - arrived on my desk side by side. They traveled widely different paths to get here: the penny on the right was coined in Philadelphia - just around the corner so to speak - and shows the wear and tarnish expected of a coin that's given four decades of service; the penny on the left traveled across the continent to get here. If you look below the date, you can see the "S" mint mark indicating this one was struck in San Francisco. This coin has lived a charmed life! It shows almost no wear, few scratches; in fact the original finish is still intact. This coin has traveled over 3,000 miles in 41 years, and still looks like new. Collectors appreciate that kind of thing, but somehow it seems like this slacker from San Francisco is expecting the other pennies to do all the work. What kind of work ethic is that?



Work ethic is a hard thing to quantify, but I have a story that goes like this: The dish washer was waiting at the bus stop on his way to work when someone drove by and shot him in the back. He didn't know what to do. So he got on the bus, made his two transfers, and arrived for work an hour later. When he came into the lobby, someone told him there was blood all over the back of his shirt. He replied, "That's where I got shot." When his manager saw the blood, he rushed the dish washer to the clinic ... and when the doctor at the clinic saw the blood, he rushed the dish washer to the hospital. X-rays revealed the bullet was still in his back. He is presently recovering from surgery. In the future if I ever start to think, "I don't feel like going to work today", I'll just think of the dish washer and then my own troubles won't seem so bad.