Consider This: Your Task, To Build A Better World

Cardell Sackett

I heard the following quote: “Your task, to build a better world, God said, and I answered how? The world is such a large, vast place, so complicated now; and I so old and useless am, there is nothing I can do…Then God in all his wisdom said, just build a better You.”

If taken seriously, it begs the question, what have I done today to build a better me? You don’t have to look far to find elderly, youth, someone with an illness, and many others that a visit, a word of encouragement, or act of kindness would help. I saw a TV program where a young man in New York just offered to open the door for people, or help with a load they were carrying and it was surprising that about one in 10 welcomes the help.

It has to start somewhere, let it be here in our own “back yard.”

I will build a better me when I go outside my comfort zone and look for a little thing I can do to help another. “Ma’am, may I get that door for you?”

Join me in my battle to prove that kindness and chivalry are not dead!

Consider this! (Cardell Sackett is a realtor with Bridge Realty in Price.)

What Your Business Appearance
Tells Your Potential Customers

Jerry Stotler

Many years ago I worked for a sign company. We made signs for shopping centers, large and small. The appearance of your business says more about a business and its operator than he can ever say about himself.

Pride of ownership shows through appearances of a sign and the condition of the facility. It shows the world the quality of the owner’s work. If the owner is too cheap to take care of the image behind his business then he is probably too cheap to use quality parts and do quality work.
Most people realize that good work can’t be done in a junky store or shop. Sure things can get messy when you are busy and working hard, but a cluttered, dirty establishment says volumes about the pride of workmanship of the operator. A fussy mechanic will generally do better work than a slob.

A precision machinist’s work area is generally clean, neat and well organized. For another example, you may have noticed two different repair shops. One has a piece of plywood nailed to the front with a hand painted sign that says “TV Repairs”. The sign has been there for years and has never been repainted. The paint is faded and peeling and the shop is never very busy. Another store has a nice looking professionally painted sign that says “TV Repairs.” Around the letters are a few graphic images. Which one would I choose?

I don’t know about you, but as for me, I wouldn’t even consider the junky looking store with the beat up sign. After all, I am looking to get a good job done for my money.

The appearance of your business and your sign are 24 hour a day advertisements. It’s the cheapest advertising you can get. They even advertise for you while you sleep. (Stotler resides in Ferron and in his career has been a head chef, production manager in an aerospace company and a high school teacher.)

Babysitting Bites

James L. Davis

Babysitting is dangerous, ugly work and should not be attempted by the weak at heart. It would be easier I suppose if you were actually able to sit on the babies you were watching, but my parents would never allow me to do so when I was told to babysit.

My daughter actually makes money as a babysitter. Money? I had no idea there was money to be made in babysitting. I always assumed that babysitting was the equivalent of the military draft for youth. You were drafted into babysitting by your parents when you reached the age where you were no longer considered a baby in need of sitting. Almost magically you graduated from being the subject of babysitting to the provider of babysitting. Which meant that you were no longer the source of pain and suffering but the subject of pain and suffering.

When I was young my babysitting tasks usually revolved around my younger brothers. With two working parents my summers were spent trying to find inventive ways to keep my brothers entertained so that I could play. This seldom worked because I was the babysitter, my brothers knew I was the babysitter and since I was the babysitter it was my brothers’ sworn duty to see to it that I was miserable as much as humanly possible. This was a responsibility they took very seriously.

Like any good 12 year old shirker of responsibility, I did my best to try and find a way out of my babysitting duties whenever possible and one day I stumbled upon the great management tool still in use by progressive corporations everywhere: Delegation of duties.

My mom and dad had told me that I was responsible for my brothers while they were at work and I finally struck upon the gaping loophole in their instructions. They said I was responsible for my brothers, they did not actually say that I had to be the one watching my brothers. With that realization I immediately delegated the responsibility of watching my brothers to…my brothers. I told my 7 year old brother to watch out for his 4 year old brother and my 4 year old brother to watch out for his 7 year old brother and with my duties properly delegated I set out to have myself a good day of playing and fun.

And chaos ensued.

After almost 20 minutes of relative silence I became concerned because things were going entirely to well, so I went to check on my brothers and it was then that I discovered that my 7-year-old brother had decided to delegate his responsibilities of watching his younger brother to…a tree.

My youngest brother (and his bike) were tied to the tree in our front yard and a small crowd of neighborhood kids was gathering around the tree to listen to him scream. There were, fortunately, no adults watching my little brother scream because the adults in our neighborhood had the good sense to stay away from the Davis household. There was no sign of my other brother and when I untied my youngest brother he kicked me in the shin and started marching down the street, stating in a very loud and high-pitched voice that he was running away from home.

With one brother already missing I realized that should my parents come home from work and find both of my brothers missing they might become slightly upset, so I decided right then and there that I needed to keep track of at least one of them. My youngest brother, being the smallest and within sight, seemed like the most likely candidate.

In this I was mistaken. I picked up my little brother and started carrying him back toward the house and while he screamed like a banshee I tried to get the crowd of neighborhood kids to leave. They weren’t interested in leaving but were interested in popcorn and a soda, to better enjoy the show.

With only a few feet remaining before I had my runaway brother safely secured in our house he did an unexpected thing. He bit me.

He sank his teeth into the biceps of my left arm and suddenly the banshee screams transferred from his 4 year old body to my 12-year-old body and the audience of neighborhood kids began to cheer.

After several repeated knocks to the forehead my brother finally released my arm and I began to jump about on the driveway, still screaming and looking at my arm, which was oozing blood. My littlest brother was no longer screaming, but seemed rather content to let me scream for the entire household, which was when my 7 year old brother suddenly returned home, saw the crowd of neighborhood kids and hurriedly set up a lemonade stand.

By the time my parents got home from work the crowds had dispersed, we were out of lemonade and I had resolved that I would never again try and delegate my babysitting responsibilities. When they asked us how our day had been we all told them it had been great, which in childhood code means we almost died.

So when my daughter returns home from babysitting and says she made money babysitting I wonder how much. Because whatever the amount, it is not enough.