A New Career

This morning I was on cannery duty for our ward. The item of the day - pinto beans. As they took people out 1 or 2 at a time to teach them their jobs, I sort of fell to the back of the group. By the time they got to me it seemed all essential jobs were taken. The fact that they were already turning out finished cans was the first clue.  That and the way the guy looked around as he slowly walked me out.  They put me on the conveyer belt sifting through the beans by hand looking for anything that didn’t belong. A good find was so rare that I started keeping track of the number of rocks, small sticks and odd looking pinto beans I threw out. Unfortunately I lost count, not due to the high numbers, they were anything but high, but rather due to the unyielding boredom of watching beans go by nonstop for 3 hours. The fact that my job had been created just for me was confirmed when it was time for me to leave and one of the full time cannery works very kindly told me that it was okay that I didn’t have a replacement at my post, that “they will probably be able to get by without me.” She tried so hard to phrase it well. I couldn’t help but feel like Kevin from the last episode of The Office. I would try to explain it, but if your not familiar with the politically incorrectness of the show you wouldn’t appreciate the explanation and if you are familiar but haven’t seen it, I couldn’t bring myself to spoil one of the best episodes. Tonight I am grateful for an educations.  While many parts of my future career are less than desirable, at least I don’t have to battle vertigo from watching pinto beans fly by.