Member-only story
‘Consider the Lilies
The only commandment I ever obeyed’
Okay, Emily Dickinson wrote that, but I feel the same way today. Although I am certain both of us have obeyed most of the biblical commandments, I believe it is meant to be an expression of individuality. And the lily in the lead photo that bloomed in my garden a few days ago commanded my consideration.
We are all unique, of course. We may not be as brilliant or creative (or famous) as she was, but each of us, by nature, education, and experience, is distinct. This unoriginal thought inspired a meditation on — of all things — the beginning of my working life.
Does work make the man? Did these early jobs contribute to who I am now, an old man tottering on the edge of the grave, whose last wish is to revisit the scenes of his distant youth — the places he lived, learned, and labored before taking flight?
My very first paid job was sometime around 1955 when I was in the 9th grade at Hellertown High School, a small town near Bethlehem, PA, where my father had bought a farm. I was an unwilling and unpaid farmworker but also a strong-willed kid who wanted to be paid. How else would I ever see the world?
Whenever I could, I hung out at a bowling alley near the school and was eventually recruited as a pinsetter. I saved every nickel (that I didn’t drop…
