I spent part of my weekend hanging out with a friend who was bemoaning the weedy state of her lawn. I offered to help do some gardening and ended up spending a while crawling around tugging up weeds, which was actually rather pleasant– probably because it was someone else’s yard and I could stop whenever I felt like it!
As I amused myself with this pastime, I found that it put me in a sort of meditative state, as mindless tasks often do. I kept thinking about how I had to yank out as much as possible of the dandelion roots to keep them from growing back. Suddenly, I had a flashback about why I had this fixation on the correct way of pulling out dandelions: it’s because I was once paid to do it! I forget how old I was, but I think it was a neighbor across the street who offered to pay me to pull out dandelions, but only if I did it correctly. If I presented him with the pulled out dandelions, he would pay me some small amount for each one, but only after counting the roots. It’s funny how that lesson has stayed with me ever since. Though I’d forgotten exactly why for approximately 30 years, I don’t think I’ve ever pulled a dandelion without feeling dissatisfied if I didn’t pull up the roots.
I did other odd jobs as a kid– raking, babysitting, stuffing envelopes and writing checks for a bookkeeper– but I can’t think of any specific lessons those jobs taught me that still come into play today (other than the most general things like “grab the baby and run if the house is on fire”).
Do you remember little jobs you did as a kid? Did the people who hired you turn it into a lesson and make sure you did it right, or just give you money for trying? Let’s hear some stories!
Read more about Pulling Up Dandelions: The Roots of Making Money…
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