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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Thanksgiving Part 5-Weds-Salt of the Earth





These people are the salt of the earth, the ones who preserve the whole thing from rotting away, the ones that cleanse and flavor, that allow survival and also make it palatable. TBA’s who squat in dirt homes and coax babies out of grunting women. Nursing assistants who face the onslaught of desperate patients. Mothers who feed their children day after day. Teachers who prepare lessons and endure disorganization for the hope of imparting some spark of education. Our house-workers who scrub out clothes by hand and weep and rejoice with our inexplicable comings and goings. The agriculture extension workers who collect eggs and milk goats. Siblings who protect babies from toddling into fires, uncles who agree to pay school fees for their orphaned relatives. Farmers and shopkeepers, truck drivers and policemen, this community is sprinkled with the salt of the earth, for whom I am thankful.

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