"no guns and no surprises" --Jason Killingsworth quoting Radiohead--

This is a good explanation of my day at Cracker Barrel. I could have just quoted Radiohead, but when my brother used this quote when asking about my day at work, I mistakenly thought it was his own original idea. Granted it's no, "It's so cold it'll burn your face off," but when he informed me that he was actually quoting Radiohead I gave him partial credit for the quote.

I think something must be wrong. Aren't people supposed to hate working? Or at the least have a mild distaste for it. I find that when I'm at work, I have a great time. After I got over the fact that I was the only white guy in the dishroom, or "white boy" as they like to call me. I've been dishwashing for about five and half months and have actually gotten to know the other dishwashers really well. I got to talk to one of the dishwashers, Chris, about what it was like for him to grow up as the son of a Pentacostal Minister. He didn't seem too excited about his faith so I got to encourage him. I got to drive another dishwasher home named Tony, who's car just got wrecked by his daughter. He told me about his family and the different problems he was going through. Another dishwasher Jeff, is waiting to get his paid vacation as a result of being employed there a year. He is married to a school teacher and has no children. Another dishwasher, Ronnie, has great aspirations to go back to school to become an engineer, since he has already attended a few years at FAMU.

Every day on my way to work, I get to look forward to the next conversation I will be able to have with the dishwasher standing next to me. While putting my hands into a mixture of mashed potatoes, cole slaw and Root Beer, I just listen as people pour their hearts out. Working at Cracker Barrel is usually nobody's first choice for a career so I listen to the dreams that they had and how those eventually were killed one by one, until one day they found themselves old, tired and unwilling to make the effort to pull themselves out of the hole called "the Cracker Barrel dish pit" where they work hard hours making about $6.50 an hour.

My heart hurts for these guys and I try to find various ways I can communicate love to them. Communication can be hard sometimes as I find difficulty in understanding their speech of broken and slurred words, but Christ's speech is much deeper than mere words. It was a deep act of love by a man who cared infinitely for a world that beat him within an inch of his life and nailed him to a Roman cross. May I never forget what Christ gave that day. He gave his life, and he gave me grace when the only thing I deserved was death. I find my other co-workers are no different than me. They need the same grace that was extended to me, and I count it a blessing to be put in their lives to tell them about it. My next shift is Wednesday night...

I can hardly wait.