Permit me a little rant today. If that doesn’t appeal, go back and check out my 100 Days of Gratitude, but if you stick around, you’ll see that my little rant comes from the same heart for people and valuing people as my other blogs.
I was ironing my shirt today, a new one that’s a designer label that I picked up on sale in Myer recently. It looks great with the skirt I bought, but my issue is with the quality and the way the garment is made. It’s like a lot of “fashionable” pieces at the moment – they’ve been around a few years actually – unfinished edges, where the fabric is just cut and left unfinished.
When I did sewing at school, everything was hemmed and finished neatly. Now things are “supposed to fray.”
It really looks like the people making the garment don’t care! Like they don’t care about the quality of their work, or the people who will be wearing it.
There’s a “don’t care” attitude that permeates our society, that’s not just “don’t care what other people think” which has merit, but it goes further than that. People don’t care that people deserve quality, they don’t care about swearing or being obscene, or not doing a quality job or providing quality services because “it doesn’t matter what other people think”.
It does matter that people are valued – not for the dollars they’ll spend, but because they are fellow human beings!! I think it reflects a general low self esteem. Jesus Christ said “Love your neighbour as you love yourself”. I think neighbours are getting a raw deal because people don’t value themselves, so of course don’t value others.
People are important. Their thoughts and feelings are important. We can’t be responsible for anyone else’s attitudes or responses, but we can endeavour to give our best to make someone’s life a little brighter.
That’s the essence of my passion for customer service – it’s my passion for people. People are important, valuable, and we don’t have that conversation enough. No wonder suicidal people would say “you don’t really mean that” when you try to tell them that they’re valuable and their life is worth living – if nobody’s told them before now. We shouldn’t place value on people only when they most need it.
Any and every opportunity to place value on people, to make them feel special are the best opportunities. Look for them today!
Cheering you on,
Kerrie
I’m grateful that I spent Day 99 in my hometown, celebrating the Cooee Festival, which commemorates the World War One recruitment march from Gilgandra to Sydney in 1915. In 1987 my dad was one of a group of men who re-enacted the march, from Gilgandra to Sydney, marching for 3 weeks.
In the Cooee Museum there are displays relating to the town’s history, and one of the models is dressed in my grandmothers (Dad’s mum) uniform from WW2. (She’s is nearly 95 now) The photo’s not good due to the reflection on the display case, but you get the idea.
Gosh it’s great to get out and do something different! I’m grateful for a different kind of day today, firstly I spent hours at the hairdressers, which gave me plenty of time to think about the next book I’m writing for – yep, another one! The second thing I spent a few hours on was a social night out at Bunnings, with many activities, including cooking demonstrations from Fast Ed, (Ed Halmagyi) Celebrity Chef seen on Better Homes and Gardens. The girls from Mary Kay Cosmetics were there pampering our hands, we painted pots and the staff painted childrens faces. They even had gluten-free chocolate cake with the coffee, so I was especially grateful for that!