Invisible People

The Rose Garden at Regent's Park

A couple of weekends ago, a friend and I went to see A Little Chaos with Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman. It was a bit of a disappointing film, I'm sad to admit. But I did take one thing away from it that I'd like to share with you all.

The film was about the men and women who designed the gardens at the Palace of Versailles in the late seventeenth century. Apart from making me yearn for a piece of land of my own to grow some flowers, the movie made me wonder for the first time ever who did design the gardens at Versailles. And since I've never actually been to Versailles, it made me wonder who designed and planted, and who maintains today, the many beautiful gardens I've visited here in London. I don't know about you, but I don't tend to think about the people behind the garden when I admire some blossoming flowers. Likewise, I don't tend to think about the people who designed and constructed the building in which I live. I don't tend to imagine the men who designed this neighborhood, who paved these streets, who planted the tree outside my window.

But the fact is that there are multitudes of men and women, both past and present, working "behind the scenes" as it were to create the world in which we live. There are so many people, whom I very rarely see, working to make my school run smoothly. So over the past couple of weeks, I have made a conscious effort to say hello and strike up a friendly conversation whenever our paths do happen to cross. A simple thank you to the lady who makes sure there is always tea and coffee in the staff room, to the lady who restocks the paper towels in the bathroom, and to the man who turns off the projectors at the end of the day has really transformed my working day. 

It is so easy to stay in my busy bubble, to focus on my own work, and to not give a second thought when I see that the tea is replenished or that the paper towels are restocked. But the people responsible for keeping everything running deserve some recognition. So will you join me this week as I continue my quest to thank the people with the thankless jobs--those whose work maintains the beautiful and smooth world in which we live and work?