Servants and Blessings - I Have No Idea How I Got From Here to There

I have a 100-pack (somewhat depleted by now) of "rubber" ear stoppers on my desk right now. They're old, and slightly discolored, and they don't work well any more. We sell these (newer) regularly - they're placed on the back of earrings to help keep them in the ears instead of falling out. In winter, with higher collars and many layers plus coats, lost earrings are common without using these "rubber" stoppers. 

I sell two different styles of clear "rubber" earring backs, 
and this style is my favorite and is the more popular style 
of my customers as well. But they do deteriorate over 
time. The package I pulled from the shop because of age 
aren't very good any more, but they still work for a few 
days before needing to be replaced. 

However, the bag on my desk was a bag I pulled from the shop as "unsellable" because they've aged out. I've been selling these for at least thirty years, so they could potentially date that old. I doubt they're much older than 15 years, but still, a respectable age for an earring component such as this. Instead of a bright, clear appearance, they are more golden, and instead of gripping the earwire tightly, they are a bit loose, unwilling to do much clutching at all. 

Every few days I toss the set I've had on my earrings and replace them, working my way down through the bag. I expect it will be another year or so, but I'll work my way down to the end of that bag eventually, and then will be ready to actually purchase a new bag. The set of earrings I wear are VERY light weight, and I truly wouldn't notice losing one on a high collar or bulky sweater if I didn't have the backs in place. They serve an important purpose, even if they're meant to be almost invisible. 

I just bought this book, I'll download it 
when I'm finished with my current read. 
It looks like something I'll find quite 
interesting. 

It's rather like the servants in the old estates. They weren't really acknowledged, in fact, they shouldn't have been noticed at all. In some cases, they might have been perceived as mobile furniture - quite demeaning. They worked hard, slept in the attic rooms, but had at least one meal a day, and usually got a half-day off every two weeks or so. Why work under such conditions? Because conditions "back home" were often far worse - too many kids, too little money, and backbreaking work in the fields. That's what was known as life in the multitude of years before the Industrial Revolution, after whch which new avenues of exploitation of labor opened up, and eventually led to the world we currently live in. Have we bettered ourselves? Have we improved out lot in life? I'd love to think we have, but I also know I'm damned lucky to be living where I am, having had the parents and upbringing I've had, and the opportunities I've taken advantage of. 

It's so easy to shut the door on possible blessings. It's 
rather scary to open the door wide and welcome in 
the unknown. But often, if you do, you find the other 
side of that great step to be the answer you've 
been seeking all along. 

So, I might be getting older and more yellow. I might not be holding the earrings quite as securely as a younger me would have. But I'm so very lucky to be where I am, doing what I do, and chatting with you - my friends from afar - day in and day out. Look around you and see your own blessings. I guarantee you have many. They're just every-day things, but what richness we truly have. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.