PERSPECTIVE: See the people
What happens when you start digging and see the people behind e v e r y t h i n g?
The phone, tablet, or computer you are reading this post on was designed by a whole team of people, who worked on computers designed by people, in buildings designed and built by people. And the raw materials that went into the phone were collected by people, transported by people, shaped and created by people, assembled in factories (at the very least) overseen by people. It was then packaged in more raw materials collected by people, turned into packaging designed by people, put together and counted by people, loaded onto a vessel by people, negotiated, sold, and purchased by people, delivered to stores or your home by people. The electricity used to charge your device everyday comes through electrical infrastructure designed, built, negotiated for, and maintained by people. The internet you’re using was invented and designed by people, is maintained through physical infrastructure by people, servers all over the world that store the information you’re consuming are built and maintained by people, again built and housed in buildings from raw materials collected, shaped, and assembled by people. Then, the calls, the texts, the video chats, and video and audio streams, the posts, the articles, the games— on the other side of every single one are webs and webs of people.
The dinner you are going to eat tonight— can you see the people there? The ones who delivered your food, the cashier who rang you out, the people who stocked the shelves at the grocery store, the kid who mashed your avocado, then the refrigerated truck drivers who got it from point a to b to c and so on, the people who packed those trucks, the people who packaged the food (the people who designed and made the packaging, who collected the raw materials), the people who collected the raw materials of the food, the farmers who planned and planted or raised the raw materials, the people who slaughtered or washed and cut the food, the people who designed the refrigerators that kept the food fresh during the process, the people who built those refrigerators, and again the people who build and maintained all elements of the electricity that run those refrigerators. And don’t forget you, too, the person who chose the food, who is eating the food. The garbage collectors who will take what’s left away, the people who run the facilities where what you threw out goes.
That package that arrived today, brought to your home in a truck driven by a person, loaded onto that truck by different people, flown to that location by other people, loaded onto the truck that went to the plane by other people, packaged in a warehouse by people, that is stocked and run by people, and then repeat for where the items in the warehouse came from originally. People every step of the way.
And then all of this overlaps— all the people along the way are using at least once device just like we started with, are eating food, and are buying things that were delivered as packages at one point or another.
Everything you see is connected to infinite, intertwined people. Even when you take a hike- and you’re out in Nature- those lands were protected by people who fought for them to remain as they are, and originally were cared for by people you never met.
When you start looking for the people, there is no end to seeing e v e r y o n e. And when you start to see everyone, maybe, just maybe, you can find a greater depth of gratitude for everything that is far too easy to take advantage of in our disconnected times.
What if instead of not batting an eye when what we ordered yesterday arrives on the doorstep, or we check our phone, or we eat anything - what if we started to marvel, even for a moment, at every single person (and element of the universe, but that is for another day) that had to conspire to create the moment you’re in. And keep digging until you’re into the nitty gritty of gratitude and find yourself thinking about the person who drilled the oil that became the plastic that became the bottle that the person who cleans the bathrooms at the electrical company used to pour out the solution to mop the floor.
Leave a comment and give me your own example of seeing the people, dig as deeply as you can.
RESOURCES
The short essay reminds me of an episode in the series “maids” on Netflix. The rich woman didn’t pay the maid after hours of labor because she found that she forgot to wipe down the outdoor furniture. Not paying her fair share for the service she received lead to a series of events that left the maid homeless and with her child taken away. Eventually they kidnap the woman’s dog and get her to pay for the service she received. For those with very little not paying your fair share or tipping someone enough can result in devastating hardship.