The Important Things in Life
Shipping thousand and thousands of dollars in medical equipment and supplies to a medically starved nation only to observe the workers getting the most excited when they see a stack of plain, white, five-gallon, empty pickle buckets.
A plain, white, empty, five-gallon bucket. Why on earth are you so important? Why do you capture the
imagination of the common workers? What can you possibly offer that an anesthesia machine for a surgery center cannot give in value? What secrets do you hold that cannot be unearthed by two giant farm tractors that hid you from view deep in the interior of the trailer? What pull do you have for the village people who excitedly bring you from the darkness and into the light? What safely can you offer that thousands of pairs of sterile gloves cannot extend to a surgery staff? What words can you offer the staff at Culver’s Restaurant in Noblesville, Indiana who donated you to the people of Malawi? And finally, what made you the star performer in the presentation of a great contribution?
It comes in the simplicity of need. A simple bucket, a bucket such as you, is needed in the village life of every Malawian. Needed to carry water, wash clothes, and transport maize. You, with your metal handle, are needed to clean the dishes and clean the body. You are as common a view on the head of a passing Malawi woman as is the small child seen clinging to her back. You are most common but most needed, and it is still a fact that some of the most ordinary things are the most important. At least that is true of you on this day, you a plain, white, five-gallon bucket.