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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, today I am elated to be heading to Chicago for the third annual Podcast Movement conference, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a lesson I learned when I gave someone a cookie.
Are there people serving you every day that you’ve forgotten about?
Today’s Fun Fact: Today is July 5th, and on this day in 1954 Elvis Presley recorded his first song, “That’s All Right (Mama).” The single was released two weeks later and the rest is history. So here are some fun facts about the King of Rock and Roll.
- Elvis’ famous black hair was dyed – his natural color was blonde.
- He played only five concerts outside the U.S., all on a 3-day tour of Canada in 1957. Many believe that the reason why he never toured abroad again was that his longtime manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was an illegal immigrant from Holland who would have been deported had he applied for a U.S. passport.
- Elvis recorded more than 600 songs, but did not write any of them.
- It is estimated that there were about 170 Presley impersonators when he died in 1977. Today, some say there are 250,000.
- Elvis’ signature look including his jet black hair, cape, and even the TCB logo with a lightnight bolt were all inspired by his love of the comic book character, Captain Marvel Jr.
Our Chicago Meetup is this week! Come join us at D4 Irish Pub and Cafe Thursday, July 7th starting at 6:30. Please RSVP to ensure we have enough space reserved. To find out more info and RSVP, go to www.goldenspiralmedia.com/chicago.
What I Learned Yesterday
One of the things I enjoy most about our church is something we call church without walls. Church without walls is a day where we meet at the church for a brief time on Sunday morning and then head out into the community to help people. We’ve done things like go to 3 different laundromats around town, hand out laundry supplies, and pay for the laundry for everyone for a few hours. We also go to some of the retirement homes around town and hand out flowers and chat with the residents, do yard work and other outdoor maintenance for a neighbor currently receiving cancer treatments, and doing interior repairs and painting for an elderly woman.
These are always fun and really cause me to get out of my comfort zone. The one that challenges me the most is giving flowers at the retirement center. I am terrible at starting conversations and I have the worst time trying to figure out what to say. I feel like an awkward, clunky, idiot. But our kids enjoy it a lot and the elderly folks enjoy interacting with our kids so that’s typically what we do.
Several weeks ago we had a church without walls day. This time we participated in a new activity. Instead of visiting retirement homes, we split up as a family. My son opted to go help do yard work, while Kari, Addison, and I opted to go hand out cookies.
Along with a few others from our church we carefully packaged dozens of cookies into individual baggies containing an assortment of 4 flavors. We then closed up each baggie with a bow, but the baggies into a basket and headed out. We made two different baskets. One was earmarked for the local police station, and the other was earmarked for one of the local fire stations.
As you can imagine, there wasn’t much happening at the police department administration building on a Sunday morning. In fact, the building was totally empty. The building is new and some of the staff is still operating out of the old building across the street so we weren’t sure where to go. Once inside we found an intercom and the voice that answered told us to stay put and they’d send someone over.
We waited for quite a while before anyone arrived. In fact, the officer that did eventually show up did so completely randomly. He had no idea we were inside waiting for someone and our gift was a total shock. He was very grateful to receive the cookies and our simple gesture seemed to make a genuine impact on him.
Our visit to the fire station went quite a bit differently. When we arrived, no one was there. It seemed that they were out on a call and, of course, we had no idea when they’d return. So after waiting a few minutes we decided to visit the next closest fire station instead. However, as we were getting back into our cars, the firemen arrived back at the station.
We quickly unloaded and grabbed the basket of goodies. They saw us coming and greeted us out front. The senior member of the team was surprised by our visit and our gift of baked goods. Because of the nature of our destination, we had several kids in our group. He cheerfully invited the kids inside the garage to climb inside the trucks and show the kids around.
Once inside the garage we met the other two firemen on duty that day. We stayed quite a while and learned about their daily routine, the types of calls they normally get, when their busy times of year are, they type of equipment and trucks they have on hand, and what type of situation is best for each truck. It was a lot of fun for everyone.
However, one firefighter made a comment that really stuck with Kari and I. He said, “It means so much to us that you came by today. We sit here day after day on call for the moment someone needs us. We watch traffic go by and no one every stops. Everyone keeps driving by as if we aren’t even here.”
Here’s what I learned.
Isn’t that an interesting comment? I mean, I don’t really think too much about the daily lives of the firemen. I kind of assumed they had their jobs and each other and a fire pole to slide down so they must have all they need.
But the truth is, they are people just like us. They give of themselves every day and we usually don’t give them much thought or appreciation until we need them. Most of us never need the aid of a fireman, so it’s easy to almost forget them. At the very least, it’s easy to just drive by and never give any thought to stopping in to say hello, thank them for their selfless work, or bring them a small gift of appreciation.
What other professions are like that?
I’m sure there are people all around us serving and working hard each day to make our lives better that we rarely even think about. People like nurses, custodians, utility workers, emergency medical technicians, and teachers are just a few of these groups of people.
Regardless of the job we have, everyone likes to know that their work is appreciated. Words of encouragement, a smile, a simple thank you, and even the simplest of gifts can go a long way in recharging someone’s battery, helping someone make it through a difficult day, inspiring someone to continue through a difficult time, and bringing positivity to someone’s day.
So I encourage you to keep a look out this week as you go about your daily tasks. Look for the forgotten. Find someone who may never hear a thank you, and let them know that even though you may be a car driving by, you’re thinking of them and appreciative of the sacrificial work they do.
I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
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