Penny for Your Thoughts

Yesterday was Wednesday. Oops, I'm just now remembering that was supposed to mean a post here on One Writer's Journal. So here I am a day late and a dollar short. Well, you never get a dollar's worth anyway, but maybe a penny's worth of this and that. A penny might not entice you to read on since a penny is so worthless these days that some people won't even lean down to pick one up off the ground and clerks wave you out the door if you start digging in your change purse for that one penny extra you owe.

Once upon a time, a penny was worth something. It was actually made out of copper as early as 1793, but over the years the copper content kept shrinking until it has almost  disappeared. A penny contains 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper to give them their distinctive copper color. It isn’t only the copper content that has shrunk since the early pennies, but the whole penny. The original one-cent coin was five times heavier and almost half again as large as our pennies today.  
 


Of course, a penny probably could buy something back when it was the first currency of any type authorized by the U.S. government. And at the risk of all of you deciding I’m ancient, I admit that I remember when a penny could buy something. A piece of Double Bubble gum. A Dum Dum sucker. Some time on the parking meter. Five pennies would get you a pretty big candy bar if you had a sweet tooth. Twenty-six of them would buy a gallon of gas.  

Some think the penny has played its role and should be phased out, but an overwhelming majority of Americans want to keep the penny. A 2012 poll found over two-thirds of those surveyed wanted to keep the penny even if it has cost more to produce it than its face value since 2006. In 2011, it cost 2.41 cents to make a penny. That’s probably gone up now. But we love our pennies. 

We even think finding a penny is lucky. Did you ever hear "Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day you'll have good luck?" Then there’s the phrase “a penny for your thoughts.” That was first found in a 1547 collection of contemporary English phrases compiled by John Heywood. And don't forget about giving people your “two cents” worth - advice or opinion. Double that penny for your thoughts. 

Now some claim to find pennies from heaven. It’s a comfort to them after someone they love dies when they find pennies in unusual places as though the coin was planted there just for them. Pennies from heaven. 



Pennies are part of our history. For over two centuries, the penny’s design has symbolized the spirit of the nation, from Liberty to Lincoln. Since 1787, over 300 billion pennies with eleven different designs have been minted. Now the 2010 Lincoln penny symbolizes President Lincoln’s preservation of the United States as a single and united country.

So thanks for reading and maybe I’ll remember it’s Wednesday next week. Meanwhile, if you find a penny, you better pick it up and put it in your pocket. You give it to someone like me and you might get more than your penny's worth of thoughts.

How do you feel about the penny? Is it here to stay? Have you found pennies from heaven?

Remember, leave a comment before March 1 to be entered into the drawing for Scent of Lilacs.

Lesson of the Garbage Truck

Is it really Friday? What happened to Wednesday? I think I missed it this week. I must have been looking to the right when it slid by on my left. As some people have been known to say, "Bless her heart!" In Southern lingo, that means "Poor thing, she's losing it."

And so Wednesday passed and I forgot my post to my friends here on the great, wide web. I could make up excuses. Let's see. How about I'm trying to get started on a new book and that has my head in another place and time where I think it's Saturday? Certainly not Wednesday. Or how about that I'm back and forth between my house and Mom's so much I don't know what place I'm in, much less what day it is? Or it could be the problem is that I actually did some Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. That has to mean the sun and moon are out of alignment and it's no wonder I can't remember what day it is. Or how about this one? The days whizzed by so fast they made me dizzy. It had to be Wednesday's fault, don't you think?


Whoever or whatever was at fault, I did remember that we had a Wednesday this week. And since it's less than a week before Thanksgiving, I thankful for that Wednesday and every day that gives me more opportunity to enjoy the world, to write my stories, to talk to friends. And to ignore the garbage trucks of the world. Where did that come from, I'm sure you're asking.

So here's a little story I came across as I was looking for something to put in my church bulletin. I can't forget there's a Sunday coming!  The author on the piece is unknown, but it could be any of us learning this lesson of the garbage truck.

     "One day I hopped into a taxi and headed for the airport. We were driving along when a black car pulled out of a parking space directing in front of the taxi. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes and barely managed to miss the other car. The driver of the car looked around and started yelling at the taxi driver, but the driver just smiled and waved in an honestly friendly way.
    So I asked him, "How could you wave so friendly like that? That guy almost hit us." That's when the taxi driver taught me what I now call, "The Lesson of the Garbage Truck."
    He explained that a lot of people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage - frustration, anger, and disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't pick up their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home or on the streets.
    The bottom line is that successful people don't let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so: Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't and love them too. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it! Have a blessed, garbage-free day!"

Hope you don't meet any "garbage trucks" this week and that you will have a sunshine filled and happy day. We can also spread the sunshine to all those we meet. That's why I put the above photo with this. This sunset was lovely, but I almost didn't take the picture. I thought the light lines and traffic lights would spoil the beauty of the scene. But the beautiful sun sinking behind some clouds was still there. I had to choose what I concentrated my gaze on. Isn't that what we do every day? Choose to see the beauty. Work to make our worlds more beautiful.

Thanks for reading. Maybe Sunday won't sneak past me without me noticing.