Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCCXXIII

I heard one man say that when he bought a rectal thermometer, he saw a note on the box saying that "each one has been individually tested," and that made him wonder how that testing had been done. When I heard that, the first thought that came to my mind was, "and sometimes I complain about MY job." My next thought was how proud Little Johnny must feel when his teacher asks him to tell the class what his daddy does for a living. "He's a rectal thermometer tester." When times are tough, you take what you can find, but, I believe for a person to be truly happy, he or she must find work in which they can be proud. That brings us to my next point. There are some positions where the duties are not all that glamorous, but the job title makes it sound like a dream job. There's one profession, however, that has yet to change its name....but what should the new name be? The job title? Critic. Yes, that's right...critic. And apparently there are a few individuals who are making a lot of money in that field. I'm sure there are some who think that being a critic would be the ideal job...you just watch a movie when it first comes out and write what you think about it. I look at it a little differently. First of all, I wasn't properly trained for that position, because my mom taught me that if I didn't have something nice to say, then I should just keep my mouth shut. Secondly, and maybe this also goes back to my improper training for this line of work, I think I would be ashamed to tell people that my job requires that I criticize people who are performing tasks that I can't even do. Thirdly, although I'm a pretty good salesman, I think I would have a problem asking people to pay me to tell them whether or not I liked a movie. And last of all, since I'm not a big fan of movies, I would hate for my job to require that I sit and watch movies all day long. I'd rather shovel manure all day or test thermometers....well, maybe not that. I do take issue with the fact that so many people who can't sing are criticizing the singer, people who can't play ball are criticizing the quarterback, and people who can't run are criticizing the runner. If you can do a job better than I can, you are qualified to criticize....otherwise, wait until you DO qualify. The credit belongs to the one who performs, not the critic. I'm sure if some actual critics end up reading this article, they may not be happy with what I've had to say, and my response will be, "If you can dish it out, you should be able to take it." I'm going against what my momma taught me and criticizing the critics. Someone should pay me for this. The people I'm NOT criticizing are the thermometer testers....because I'm perfectly happy with the job they're doing. Preston