I am officially on Thanksgiving Break. As most people headed home to spend turkey day around a table with their families, I stayed in my room and cleaned. Yesterday my baby sister Amanda flew in from Alabama to stay with me for the week. So after Meghan left at noon on Friday mission Danielle Cleans Room. Meghan adores cleaning so I haven't really cleaned that much this year. And I swear that after I informed her she didn't need to clean because I would take care of it, the mess multiplied. I began cleaning at around 3 in the afternoon and didn't finish till close to really late that night. Of course this long cleaning time includes my procrastination moments (those are more frequent than I truly care to admit). Since had done laundry for quite a while I started there, I began searching through my gold patterned box where I keep all my coins for quarters. Have you ever been amazed how quickly coins collect? You have that one place where you stick all your spare change, whether it be a jar, a piggy bank, maybe even the bottom of your purse. And you are surprised when one day you realize that the bottom of it is lined with pennies, dimes, nickels, and the occasional token for the splurge at the arcade. Well this is the case with my gold patterned box.
It amazed me as I removed the lid to this box just how many coins had accumulated over the course of a quite a while. When it comes to coin collecting we become robots, we find a coin laying around pick it up and place it in our place for coins, we don't realize how many we actually pick up till we actually take the time to look. I decided to stack them all and after I started looking a bit like Scrooge, I noticed that pennies out numbered the other coins by a significant amount.
The penny is an interesting coin. CHALLENGE: go to the place where you keep your coins and grab a handful of pennies. Look at the design, the little letter, honest Abe's head. Pay close attention to the year. As I did this with my own collection I noticed a surplus of 2000's and up and a lot from the 1980's. To me it is surprising how something that was created before I was even a thought in my parents head can end up in my hand. After I set down a penny from 1987 the next coin in my hand was a 1992 coin. Now in case you don't know, that was the year I was born. It was created the same time I was and was sent out into the world before I was. This one penny has probably been to more places then I will ever be able to go. But somehow we both ended up at Stephens. Somehow all these coins have traveled through time and have ended up in my gold patterned box. Pennies are like mini time capsules created in one moment and will still be the same in future generations. When I looked through penny after penny I finally found my oldest penny.....
Incase you can't tell, its from 1945. I don't know if I am just easily amused and find this way too fascinating but this on little tiny bit of copper has been working since 1945 and now is owned by some 19 year old in Missouri. Just think the amount of people who have held this since the time of its creation. They are never changing in a very changing world. As we change our view on religion it has kept a strong and sturdy stance. When people question the government the currency believes in one single quality, liberty. A penny is a constant reminder that we make to much of a fuss over everything. And every once in a while we need to have that reminder. Pennies are relicts from the past that are a constant reminder of a time that none of us will see. next time you notice that small penny laying on the sidewalk, don't allow our history and values to be walked on allow it to live on by picking it up and appreciating it.
I have been told that my blog can be cheesy or philosophical in nature. But this is just a penny for your thought! hahahahahahahahahhahahahahahaaaaaaa
DW
No comments:
Post a Comment