Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\nI\u2019ve been re-reading Gray\u2019s famous \u201cElegy\u201d lately partly because the poet has a similar name to a teammate of mine \u2014 a member of my night crew at the Big Box who has worked with me for the past three years.<\/p>\n
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Our work is not glamorous or high-status. And because it appears so simple and straightforward \u2014 unload trucks, pack out freight, fill the shelves and organize the overstock \u2014 it isn\u2019t accorded much dignity in terms of either prestige or pay. But it is a craft and, like any craft, it provides its own dignity for those who strive to learn to do it well.<\/p>\n
Our TG was good at this craft. He came to the Big Box after years elsewhere in retail and brought years of experience with him. So he understood, for example, steps and touches \u2014 something that takes five minutes to teach and five years to learn.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet not Ambition mock their useful toil,\u201d Gray\u2019s \u201cElegy\u201d says, but ignorant Ambition still tends to mock the useful toil of the overnight freight crews that make retail possible. \u201cAnybody could do that job,\u201d people imagine. But no. No they can\u2019t. The difference between an experienced member of a freight team and even the sharpest, most dedicated newbie is vast and measurable. Those who have learned and worked at this craft are simply capable of getting a lot more done, more accurately, and in less time than those who haven\u2019t put in the time and work to learn all of that. It is, in fact, a form of skilled labor. It is \u201cuseful toil\u201d \u2014 honorable work not only because it is necessary but because, when observed and understood, it is an impressive sight.<\/p>\n
Our TG was an impressive worker. He could, in other words, do things that most people cannot do. Everybody<\/em> on my crew can do things that most people cannot do, but he could do more of it in one shift than most of them.<\/p>\nOur TG passed away last week, suddenly.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t yet know exactly what happened. One night he worked his regular shift and seemed fine. The next night he didn\u2019t show up, or call out, so we called him and then, when we couldn\u2019t reach him, called his emergency contact number.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know him well outside of work. I know he had two sons he was proud of. The older one is getting married in the spring. The younger one, who lives with his ex-wife, is a senior in high school. He had family who loved him and friends who knew his story and his stories and who knew about the larger parts of his life that didn\u2019t involve his work here with me and the rest of our crew.<\/p>\n
But I knew him mainly from work, and from his work. And because of that, what I can tell you about him is this: He was good at his job. He did good<\/em> work. Let not Ambition mock his useful toil.<\/p>\nAnyway, there\u2019s suddenly a big hole in our crew and I think some of them were hoping I\u2019d have something to say to them that would change that somehow. But I don\u2019t. All I know to say to them is this: \u201cI miss Tom. And I am sad.\u201d\u00a0Saying that doesn\u2019t fix anything, but it at least has the virtue of being true.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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Let not Ambition mock our useful toil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've been re-reading Gray's famous "Elegy" lately partly because the poet has a similar name to a teammate of mine -- a member of my night crew at the Big Box who has worked with me for the past three years.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/12\/13\/let-not-ambition-mock-our-useful-toil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Let not Ambition mock our useful toil\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I've been re-reading Gray's famous "Elegy" lately partly because the poet has a similar name to a teammate of mine -- a member of my night crew at the Big Box who has worked with me for the past three years.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/12\/13\/let-not-ambition-mock-our-useful-toil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-12-13T23:33:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-13T20:54:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2024\/12\/Gray-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/12\/13\/let-not-ambition-mock-our-useful-toil\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/12\/13\/let-not-ambition-mock-our-useful-toil\/\",\"name\":\"Let not Ambition mock our useful toil\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-12-13T23:33:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-13T20:54:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"I've been re-reading Gray's famous \\\"Elegy\\\" lately partly because the poet has a similar name to a teammate of mine -- a member of my night crew at the Big Box who has worked with me for the past three years.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/12\/13\/let-not-ambition-mock-our-useful-toil\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/12\/13\/let-not-ambition-mock-our-useful-toil\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/12\/13\/let-not-ambition-mock-our-useful-toil\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Let not Ambition mock our useful toil\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; 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