“It is a great testimony to the connectedness of life on earth that the fates of the largest and the tiniest life should be so closely dependent on each other.” ―
Last night at dinner, I had the strangest thought. We were at a new-to-us restaurant and they had quite a selection of entrees. Kangaroo, Emu, Muscovy Duck, Australian Lamb, New Zealand Venison, etc etc.
Let’s take the Kangaroo. Whatever your position is on meat eating, it takes quite a feat to get this meal to a table, and there are many people to thank. An almost limitless number in fact.
Let’s work backward identifying those we need to thank for this meal, but first. A photo:
Looks delicious, right? It was… but let’s continue with our thanks-giving.
A hearty thanks goes out to the following people for “making” my dinner:
- the supplier who sold the meat to the restaurant
- the chef who cooked it in the back
- the school that taught the chef how to cook it
- the range manufacturer who produced the equipment he cooked it on
- the gas company who provided the gas for the flame on the range
- the mechanical contractor who installed the gas line at the restaurant
- the vehicle manufacturer that made the truck he brought the pipe on
- the steel fabricator who made both the pipe and the vehicle parts
- the steel producer who made the raw materials for the fabricator
- the iron ore manufacturer who provided the raw materials to the producer
- the shipping company that transported the raw goods
- the company that made the equipment to get the iron ore from the ground
…and on and on and on.
You could offshoot in any direction here. From the kangaroo farm in Australia and the guy who sells the feed to the farmer, to the company that manufactured the plate that it sits on. And you can do this for any product you use. It literally took tens of thousands of people, if not more, to make this meal happen.
We are all interconnected in such a deep way, yet we rarely take the time to drill down and be thankful for the thousands or tens of thousands of individuals that are truly responsible for our everyday lives.
What an amazing time we live in, no? How fortunate we are in so many ways. Take a minute to slow down and appreciate it all every once and awhile. Cheers!
See you on the journey…