all that glitters

We put a brave and happy face on for the public. Social media and the digitizing of our world present us at our smiling best.

But it’s not all peaches en regalia at the job site everyday.

-15 degrees -39 wind chill Center, North Dakota. Makes me want to stay in bed.

That’s a status update from my brother-in-law, an electrician, on his way to work hundreds of miles from home at 5 am the other day.

We’re grateful to be working, make no mistake.

This is simply a nod to those who are up before the sun, to those who slog away outdoors on cold and damp and bone-freezing days. This is a nod to the faces which aren’t booked, the selfies that are never taken, to the daily humdrum of the routine which is neither sexy nor particularly remarkable yet which comprises the majority of our days.

All that glitters is not gold.

Cheers to your hardworking, unnoticed, and undocumented ways. Props to runny noses, unmatched socks, mediocre coffee, and the lack of anything sublimely witty to say. A nod to you whose day sometimes seems an unappreciated journey of tedium.

Persevere. There is gold in the ordinary.