Wednesday, January 13, 2010

So I Was Thinking That Government is a Lot Like Sewage

Seriously, hear me out.

Like sewage, there is nothing you can do to keep government out of your life except stop eating and die. However, you will never meet people who wearing a t-shirt that says "I heart sewage!" When you meet someone who makes a living handling sewage, either as a plumber, or... as a plumber (I have not spent much time learning all the different professions that revolve around sewage disposal) you do not jump backwards and cross yourself to ward off the evil eye (if you do, shame). You find out that a plumber is an interesting person with likes, dislikes, and a job that pays almost 40,000 a year. (Okay, the comparison isn't perfect. Politicians get paid more than that.) You do not, however, consider plumbing a pleasant or desirable job. You pay plumbers to deal with what you like to pretend does not exist.

Sewage, as previously stated, is part of our lives. We spend lots of money making this unpleasant fact as pleasant as possible. Hence indoor flushing toilets, porcelain sinks with shiny fixtures, pleasant lighting, mirrors, bathroom rugs, and perhaps most important, deodorizer in a variety of scents.

BUT (this is the important part) we do not like sewage. We do not want it in our water. We do not want it in our food. We don't want it in our medicine. We treat it as toxic and rightly so. We teach our children as early as possible not to paint with it on the wall, eat it, or rub it on their face. We make up long fancy words about it so that we don't make our mouths feel dirty. We consider conversations about sewage juvenile and crude. We go out of our way to avoid contact with sewage as much as possible.

Politicians are plumbers. They get paid lots (too much) money to do a very unpleasant and contaminating job that no one else wants (except other politicians; go figure). You really don't care what or how a plumber does his job so long as he does it and you can rest secure in the knowledge you won't end up with a stinking flooded house. If you're like my dad, you go to Home Depot and handle your own plumbing, but since I'm not sure how this applies to my government analogy- people usually frown on it when you try to write your own tax laws- skip it.

When the sewage does get into the rest of the house, the plumber should expect to lose the job and his reputation.

1 comment:

  1. That's an unusual but pretty apt comparison. I like it!!! (And, for the record, I don't want to deal with either real or metaphorical sewage.) (;

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