friday quotation...well, a story

This past week when school has been quiet, I've spent some time each day visiting with our maintenance and security staff. They do so much thankless work here at school. We have afternoon clean-up each day in an effort to help them out. For five minutes right before school is dismissed every student and faculty member does some little job around campus as we try to clean up after ourselves. For example, my advisees come to my office and together we take out the trash, stack chairs (so that vacuuming is easier), make sure that the area outside of my office is free of any trash, and take the recycling down to the large recycling bins. As our first Head of Upper School, Hilary Carlson, said, "The last thing we want is a bunch of teenagers who will travel around the world to save the whales but can't be bothered to clean up after themselves." Amen.
At any rate, I know that what we do really doesn't even begin to ease the workloads of those folks who are on our staff whose job it is to mop and dump trash and basically keep our school a wonderful place to return to each morning. We try to thank them throughout the year but I'm not sure we'll ever be able to say it enough.
And while we're here at school, because we're a relatively open campus, we have people who sit in a "guard office" and monitor the comings and goings of everyone on campus. They are SO important because they really are the first face that many people meet when they arrive on campus. They are friendly and helpful and patient when we forget to tell them we are expecting visitors or when students forget their passes off campus. They also help keep the campus safe.
There is one particular person who is here every morning and through the day until her shift ends mid-afternoon. Her name also happens to be Elizabeth and as I drove onto campus this week I was struck by something that I observed each day. It seemed like for each day of the week she had some small task that she was doing in or around the guard office. One day she was cleaning the windows. The next day she was sweeping. The following day she was bringing in a new potted plant to brighten up her workspace. Something about this just warmed my heart. I thought, "Here Elizabeth is making her work space as cheerful as it can be even though she has a job that is terribly thankless and probably downright boring on many days. And I'm sure that people are not always terribly nice to her." And I started thinking of a story that we used to hear at camp...yes, my blog today strayed a little from my usual Friday quotation but remember, it's my "spring change-of-pace" week!
Here's the story...take it for what you will. I think it's just a good one to know. It's always been a good reminder to me to take pride in what I do - no matter how big, how small, how important, how unimportant my job is...

As a young boy, Mark Twain took a steamboat trip down the Mississippi River. He was a typically curious lad, and his wanderings led to the engine room. He had never seen a dirtier place in his life. Slimy oil and bilge water covered the floor around the bottom of the engine. Dirty, greasy rags were strewn about the floor, and grease that had been collecting for years covered the engine. The sight of that room was unforgettably repulsive to him.

Years later he happened to be on the same boat again and retraced the steps he had taken as a boy. Once again he visited the engine room. This time an incredible contrast met his eyes. Gone from the floor were all the oil and bilge water. The filthy rags had disappeared. All of the grease had been wiped from the engine; the brass and copper parts had been polished until they gleamed!

Sitting next to the engine was a man with one of the most pleasant expressions Mark Twain had ever beheld.

Commending the engineman on the tremendous improvement that had taken place, Twain asked how such a startling contrast could be accounted for. The old engineman replied, “Mr. Twain, I’ve got a Glory.”

His glory, he said, was having the finest engine room on the Mississippi River. Without doubt, he had succeeded.