Salt of the Earth

When we use the term “he’s salt of the earth” we usually mean that the person is reliable and worthy (taken in the context of Matthew 5:13) although it can also be used as “being the best and noblest elements of society which is rather different.  I am using it now in the first meaning when I say that my people were Salt of the Earth type people.

In today’s world we may easily be led into undervaluing the characteristics that makeup the best of society.  Those every day people who drive our buses, clear our streets of snow, serve our lunch at our favorite cafeteria and ourselves as we put in our 8 hour day in service “to the man”.  I love the speech in “Meet John Doe” when he describes the work-a-day people through the centuries and they were indeed the salt of the earth. 

We are getting deep into the season of Hollywood appreciating themselves and I just want to remind my readers that the real heroes in the world are the ones who keep it going day in day out.  Farmer Jones in 1650 may never be remembered even by his own kin but if he hadn’t planted his potatoes (or wheat, or barley, or dug out the coal for heat, or fished for cod in the Baltic Sea), if he and others like him hadn’t done their duty, where would society be today?

Think about your great, great grandparents when you go to sleep tonight and maybe even whisper a little thank you for what they went through to provide for their family.  If it wasn’t for them, you wouldn’t be here.