Totem Pole

“Low man on the totem pole”- what comes to mind as you read these words? Or maybe I should ask who comes to mind? Is there someone in your life that comes to mind? Is it someone at your workplace, at the gym, in your neighborhood or in your home? Is it you?


It seems to be human nature to attach worth to each individual according to whatever our personal ideas of worth are. Is your idea of worth money? If it is, than your totem pole has those who make more at the top .Those who make less are on the bottom.

Is your idea of worth position? Then the rungs on your ladder are very clear to you. Management is at the top and maybe the cleaning lady at the bottom.

Are you the kind of person who add up someone’s worth by the amount of things that person owns? If so, the have-nots are at the bottom of your heap and those who have are at the top.

Right about now, I know there are some of you that are indignantly thinking, no way! Probably, you go to church regularly, try hard to live the Golden Rule, be good to your neighbors, etc. Think about it a minute- do you really think of the pianist, the janitor, the nursery teacher and the minister in the exact same way?

If after looking honestly inwards you can say yes, than I honor you. You have learned a valuable lesson that will bring you much peace and joy. You have learned to count worth by character. You can look past the outside of a person, past the trimmings of money, position, possessions and see the heart. Congratulations!

For the rest of you, can I share a story? This story is about a dark time in my life. I don’t know about you but the lessons I’ve learned the best have always come at dark times. Anyway, I was newly divorced and trying to enter the workforce after years of being a homemaker. With no recent work history, it was seemingly impossible to get a job.

Our town is small in population and amenities but large in area as many rural American towns are. We are near a large town, however, and that town has a newspaper. This newspaper needed a rural delivery person- basically, someone who would deliver the paper from a car. Desperate, I took it. The hours were crazy, the pay lousy but I could do it around my other ventures at the time AND I could bring my little ones along. It was perfect for a mom who hadn’t slept in years anyway!

One of the hidden blessings of this job was the hours of uninterrupted quiet thinking time it gave me. It’s a precious commodity for a single mom with a houseful of children. One day in the dark just before dawn, I began to think about the newspaper itself. I thought about what it took to give “birth” to a newspaper. I pondered the teamwork that every paper needed just to come into being. Without any one of the people involved there would be no paper.

It was then that I learned the valuable lesson that the “low man” at the bottom holds the rest of the totem pole up!! We all used to know that. We need to learn it again.

That’s the view from my side of the street today. What’s yours?