Recently, I was on my drive home when I spotted a sign in front of a local business. The sign read: “Counter Help Wanted.” Initially, I had little reaction. Of course, in economic terms this is usually good news, but one instance is difficult to use to make sweeping generalizations about the economy.
It could be a sign the store has increased business and really does need more help. That truly is good news---both for the business and for whoever gets employment to help the business. Or, I reckoned, it might be that a current employee had quit, retired, or perhaps even become sick. In this case, the “help wanted sign” would simply be a replacement and, therefore, not any economic advancement.
So I drove on by the store and was soon reaching my own place of domicile (I like to use words like these with the students; so often they do not know what it means, so I get to help them broaden their vocabulary. “Oh,” they will exclaim, “it just means you got home!) So as I was coming to the drive into my home, it hit me.
“Counter Help Wanted” could be taken in two ways. I doubt it even occurred to the boss that the help he solicits might read that sign in two ways. Of course, the obvious way is simply that the boss needs someone to come regularly to the store and work the counter. I suppose this means checking out people who have bought stuff. Perhaps, it means running the cash register. I don’t know what other details might be needed, but we all know what “counter help” would look like in this scenario.
Then it hit me. (I like to think it is creativity, but most think it is nothing more than a warped mind!). That sign could mean the boss wants someone to come to work to challenge and to contest all the shoppers in the store! In other words, the boss might want someone to be “counter” (“against”) all that is going on! “That’s absurd,” you will want to object.
Of course, it is in the case of that little store on my way home. But let’s think of other instances where “counter (against) help” is precisely what is needed. Is this not what police often are doing? Gratefully, they are out there “countering” all the stupid, rotten things some members of our human race are doing to us and to each other.
And fire fighters are “counter help” in this same sense. And again fortunately, we watch them risking their lives sometimes on our behalf. And so, it becomes easy to take the list further of examples of “counter help.”
Now let’s get spiritual. Easily, I can imagine God also wants “counter help.”---and that is in both senses. With my theology God does not go around in the world changing things on a Divine Whim. I do have a sense that there is a Divine Desire for each of us, for all of us together, and for our world. But God wants (needs?) us to co-operate and collaborate in this Divine Desire. God needs “counter help” in this.
Think of our entire world as the Divine Counter. We all can go to work there as “counter helpers.” In our own lives and spheres we can be agents of this Divine Endeavor. We can bring love and justice and hope to our little corner of this Divine World. Some of you already are super-helpers in this work. Others of us need to begin or step it up.
And then, there is also the need for some of us to be “counter (“against) helpers” in this Divine World. It is not difficult to see places where we need to say, “No, don’t do that!” God needs us to assist in minimizing the dastardly, dumb things people are doing to themselves, to each other, and to our world. We are called to save, not sour, life.
So, sign up. Sign on. Become a “counter helper!”
It could be a sign the store has increased business and really does need more help. That truly is good news---both for the business and for whoever gets employment to help the business. Or, I reckoned, it might be that a current employee had quit, retired, or perhaps even become sick. In this case, the “help wanted sign” would simply be a replacement and, therefore, not any economic advancement.
So I drove on by the store and was soon reaching my own place of domicile (I like to use words like these with the students; so often they do not know what it means, so I get to help them broaden their vocabulary. “Oh,” they will exclaim, “it just means you got home!) So as I was coming to the drive into my home, it hit me.
“Counter Help Wanted” could be taken in two ways. I doubt it even occurred to the boss that the help he solicits might read that sign in two ways. Of course, the obvious way is simply that the boss needs someone to come regularly to the store and work the counter. I suppose this means checking out people who have bought stuff. Perhaps, it means running the cash register. I don’t know what other details might be needed, but we all know what “counter help” would look like in this scenario.
Then it hit me. (I like to think it is creativity, but most think it is nothing more than a warped mind!). That sign could mean the boss wants someone to come to work to challenge and to contest all the shoppers in the store! In other words, the boss might want someone to be “counter” (“against”) all that is going on! “That’s absurd,” you will want to object.
Of course, it is in the case of that little store on my way home. But let’s think of other instances where “counter (against) help” is precisely what is needed. Is this not what police often are doing? Gratefully, they are out there “countering” all the stupid, rotten things some members of our human race are doing to us and to each other.
And fire fighters are “counter help” in this same sense. And again fortunately, we watch them risking their lives sometimes on our behalf. And so, it becomes easy to take the list further of examples of “counter help.”
Now let’s get spiritual. Easily, I can imagine God also wants “counter help.”---and that is in both senses. With my theology God does not go around in the world changing things on a Divine Whim. I do have a sense that there is a Divine Desire for each of us, for all of us together, and for our world. But God wants (needs?) us to co-operate and collaborate in this Divine Desire. God needs “counter help” in this.
Think of our entire world as the Divine Counter. We all can go to work there as “counter helpers.” In our own lives and spheres we can be agents of this Divine Endeavor. We can bring love and justice and hope to our little corner of this Divine World. Some of you already are super-helpers in this work. Others of us need to begin or step it up.
And then, there is also the need for some of us to be “counter (“against) helpers” in this Divine World. It is not difficult to see places where we need to say, “No, don’t do that!” God needs us to assist in minimizing the dastardly, dumb things people are doing to themselves, to each other, and to our world. We are called to save, not sour, life.
So, sign up. Sign on. Become a “counter helper!”
I was thinking about all the modern store owners who decided not to put in a counter near the front door at all thinking they would save a few dollars not having to communicate with the customers at the counter. They learned the customers were not happy with no counter and other employees had no idea how to install a counter or what to do with the counter once it ready. It was decided to place a sign outside advertising 'counter helper' for the store not so much for a person to work the counter but instead teach everyone at the store how to communicate better with the customers as a 'counter helper' consultant.
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