Carpet Cleaners and Cultural Shifts

Does carpet cleaning and janitorial work need to be justified and defended?

No, but I’m gonna do it anyway to point out some important concepts that I feel our society is losing sight of and we need to discuss as families, communities, and as a nation.

Our economy and demography are changing rapidly alongside massive technological advances.

Our society is increasingly stratified. Wealth is concentrating at the top and people aren’t having kids at replacement rates.

We’re getting ideologically farther apart instead of closer. We’re balkanizing along lines of age, income, race, and nationality as social media and high-drama politics fuel divisiveness.

My opinion:

In America, we need everyone working together to continue to grow and adapt. That’s true now more than ever.

Divisiveness is bad for everyone except a few people. Division doesn’t reflect our shared interests and how much we all have in common, and it stymies our collective potential.

I could provide references and counter-references to back up these statements or refute them, but I’m not writing this to convince you what’s right or wrong...that’s yours to figure out.

Instead, I want to highlight amorphous aspects of our nature that are important but often hidden and underappreciated: our attention and admiration.

Who we respect, admire, and place cultural importance on are shifting, like always. It’s important to keep track of it because our attention is what ultimately determines the outcome of our culture and politics.

Who we put our attention on determines almost everything.

Today, our attention and media landscape are fractured along so many different lines that some people live in virtually different worlds than their neighbors across the street. Our reality is bending and twisting in ways we couldn't anticipate ten years ago.

The cultural shifts are fast and destructive, and they’re not always replaced with something healthy or well-thought-out.

Drastic changes demand intense reflection and consideration from all Americans, but there is hardly space for it anymore in traditional channels.

Any time there is a major shift in your life or cultural shift in our nation, it demands reflection. Reflection makes sure the plane doesn’t crash into the mountain because we’re too confused, hurt, and in denial about what just happened to fly straight.

Helpful reflection requires calm, quiet, and unbiased thinking. That takes lots of energy, which is why it’s unpopular.

So what’s a north star we can count on? Who’s consistent and considerate of our needs? Who can we look to to save energy when patterning our thinking and behavior for a better life and country?

A carpet cleaner. Their life is routine and service.

Others like cooks, builders, drivers, and many more people already walk the walk and can give a framework to process major shifts in collective consciousness.

Why diffract and diffuse your precious attention for people who don’t serve your interests or solve your problems?

The working-class bedrock of our society is where we can turn for the methods and framework to heal many cultural wounds.

Does a carpet cleaner complain or fall apart when they see a nasty vomit stain?

Nope! It focuses and excites them to action.

That vomit on the carpet gives them purpose and a REAL value to their community. They don’t offer words and ideas to get the carpet looking like it never happened. They offer real value and real solutions to make it go away.

It’s not helpful to put attention on people who offer words, gestures, and promises to solve generational problems in our society.

Instead, put your energy and attention into the people who DO, and who help you follow through with the problems you face in your day-to-day life. It’s what will heal the ills of our society.

I think that a janitor carries the blueprint for salvation during crisis:

Make the big, nasty problem small and solvable. Engage it with an unassuming mind and try your absolute best.

By focusing on real solutions to real problems, we can navigate our way through a complex cultural transformation in small steps. We have to help eachother help eachother.

We don’t need to tear down and rebuild everything all at once…we need a clear, calm focus to make things incrementally better over time.

I am open to arguments otherwise, but the solutions and the way forward seem clear: tend your own garden and do your best to help those close by. Leave all of the drama and arguing for the vultures.

Don’t look upward for salvation from society’s ills…look into the trenches and you’ll find real leaders and service-oriented Americans willing to help and work.

As a carpet cleaner and janitor, I don’t expect glamor or riches. I get to live in my favorite place with my family, and I have unprecedented privilege and freedom as an American.

I am the ruler of the kingdom in my head, and I get to put my energy and attention where I please. This is a tremendous gift, and you have it too.

If you feel powerless or frustrated in the face of multifaceted cultural shifts, it always helps to narrow your focus to your own reality. Take a break from your phone. Feel your breath. Remember your power and purpose in your life. Go to the beach. Remember your family and friends.

If you feel compelled to act or communicate your thoughts, find someone who needs help, and help them if you can. Be friendly, kind and honest. That gets us about 90% of the way there.