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Her two children attend school in a city an hour or so northwest from where I live. So she has a place in that city and I have my home closer to where we work. It was becoming too difficult to keep up with the upkeep on her home, so she decided to sell it and move into an apartment.
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I realize that some may feel a certain stigma toward apartment living, however we feel the move will be beneficial for the both of us in the months to come. Even so, I've been dealing with the here and now for the last three days; that is moving beds, furniture, dishes, clothes and basically everything but the kitchen sink. Lifting this stuff out of one house, placing it into my truck, driving it to her apartment where I unloaded it, carried it up a flight of steps, placed it in it's designated spot only to do it all over again.
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It also means that I had to take things apart, sometimes not remembering how I had put them together in the first place. The wall mounted television was straight forward. Yet, that teens bed from Ikea, well that's a whole other story. Took me a while to even figure out where to start. I mean, who really saves the directions anyway?
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Let's not forget about the lack of sleep, waking up with a sore back, eating on the run (you'd think I was at work), wondering where I had left a certain tool or a piece to a shelving unit, a minor argument and wearing the same, sweaty clothes for an entire day (truth be told it was more like two days, but i'll never admit it).
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Yet, with all this moving there was some good things to come out of it. One of the biggest was getting rid of all that excessive stuff. Kind of like a giant spring cleaning. More or less, it's the realization that you can live with so much less. I tend to believe that it's better to have fewer, better quality items than to have more things that are cheap and last for only a short amount of time.
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As I was carrying a chair out the basement door I came upon a colony of ants. Not the big black ones, rather the smaller red ones. They were busy or you could say being productive. They climbed over each other with a purpose, swirled into their ant home only to scamper back out and add bits of dirt to their ant hill. This micro-society was in constant motion and seemingly working toward a common goal.
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And while I was driving my load of stuff, I happened to take note of the traffic around me. There were cars, pickups and semi-trucks moving toward some purposeful destination. There were people out walking, jogging or riding bikes. The strip malls appeared busy and the food joints were partially packed. I started to wonder that if I were able to rise above this hive of human activity would it appear similar to that ant colony? I know it sounds strange, but if you look at it, a resemblance exist.
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I get it that ants don't drive cars, ride in boats or fly planes. I guess I'm approaching it more from a philosophical level in that humanity is always on the move. Streets and buildings are being torn apart only to be rebuilt. Goods are fabricated only to be transported and used or consumed. Families move out of a home, while others are moving in. In essence, people are always, "on the go."
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As you can see society is dependent on its many moving parts to keep it running and functioning properly. And in the end we all benefit. Thus, no matter your religion, political ideology or personal belief we all, in some way, rely on each other so we can be given the opportunity to live our best lives possible.
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I realize that the pandemic has fractured some parts of our society and political beliefs have further chipped away at this core of our humanity. In essence not only does our work provide benefits to our community but we have a civic responsibility to make that society better for all. Right now it's taking the appropriate steps to prevent the spread of the virus. It's being cognizant of the struggles others may face and finding ways to help them live a better life. No one is twisting an arm or threatening imprisonment if you don't. But doing so, in some small way, brings a positive energy that simply makes you a better person. The choice is yours.
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I believe that the majority of us still want to be in this together, let's not be too close together while we're all in it.