TAKING NOTHING FOR GRANTED

DECEMBER 23, 2022 – This year I’ve fully grasped that none of us is as rugged or independent as claimed by our culture of “freedom” and “liberty.” I became acutely aware of my dependence.

The great “cure” for the delusion of self-reliance, I discovered, was serious illness; diagnosis and treatment of a “killer disease” depended on staggering amounts of scientific research, economic resources, technological assets, and personnel management. As a beneficiary of this remarkable system, I saw only a fraction of the total picture but spent enough time inside the framework to see that healthcare isn’t to be taken for granted.

Another example of dependency is heat . . . inside our dwellings. Last April 4, our furnace decided to retire—permanently—just when the temperature was plunging to an overnight low of MINUS 4F. Our furnace had been quite out of sight, out of mind until my spouse said a little after 5:00 p.m. that fateful Friday, “Have you noticed it’s getting a little chilly in here?”

Before 5:00 I’d taken for granted the heating and plumbing industry; specifically, the local outfit that has an emergency phone number and someone staffing the line, another employee to round up emergency heaters for us, yet another team to arrange for the selection and installation of a furnace. Then there was the new furnace itself, a complicated piece of machinery loaded with pipes, vents, fans, motors and electronics, produced not by a lone guy working out of his garage but by a factory—or more likely, factories—located in some distant part(s) of the world and transported by ship, rail and truck to our house.

As the installers removed the old and hooked up the new, I quizzed them about their work, background and experience. I was fascinated by their expertise, honed by formal training and years of on-the-job application. Behind the immediate scene was a network of organizational inter-dependencies involving everything from engineering and manufacturing and corresponding supply chains to distribution logistics and multiple enterprise capitalization, large and small.

Holiday air travel reminds me of another critical part of modern life that I used to take for granted. This complex system of people and machinery has become so highly refined, millions of passengers travel daily without a thought of anything beyond price, schedule, seat assignments and transportation to and from the airport. No air traveler needs to know anything about a jet engine; how money is assembled for this capital-intensive industry; how planes are piloted or how thousands of planes in operation at any given moment are managed by air traffic controllers; how regulations are devised, adopted and enforced to ensure safety to the degree that makes flying safer than descending the stairs at home.

So much else in our lives depends on casts of thousands: imagine what’s involved to produce and distribute a film, stage a game between two professional sports teams or perform a symphony orchestra concert; and ponder for a moment what resources are deployed to keep our local grocery stores well stocked with everything from Allspice to Zucchini.

As Christmas approaches, I’ve learned not to take that for granted either. This year I’ve noticed as never before, how bright, the lights; how uplifting the music; how warm and wonderful, the good cheer of family and friends.

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© 2022 by Eric Nilsson