| 1:01a |
Time for Change (talen head)
Walking to work today, I was struck when I put my hand in my pocket and felt a smooth roll of 2-dollar coins. The uniformity, the millinery... it was an odd thought. I ran my thumb over each coin and mused that each one represented half a day of work. One in, one out. My two dollar coin represents an opportunity to begin a new day where I can contribute tax, and at the end of the day, coming home, coming to see Fox again, rushing through the screen door and being able to hug her close.
I thought about my father who had, when he worked in Sydney doing sales, in his change drawer on his dash (no need for an ash tray) at any given point in time, twenty dollars in mixed coinage of fifty and twenty-cent pieces. That's because his day was measured by road tolls and parking meters. Each one represented a ten minute break, seeing someone new or old, a friend or contact. Dad still harbours change obssessively - he doesn't dissolve it by spending the small stuff, he tends to use notes, break them, and then stash the change in a jar at home... which he eventually turns into notes again. Small change at the end of the day, a handful of tens and fives, represents the things you did that day, the wake of a man moving through a society of little transactions.
Can your day be broken down into units of small change? What are they? Why are they significant to you? What do they represent, and how have they taken on a greater meaning? |