Monday, October 11, 2010

A Cog in the Machine



My close personal friend Merriam Webster says that a cog is a tooth on the rim of a wheel or gear.  Metaphorically speaking, being a "cog in the machine" has not been considered a really great thing in the past.  Some have used the term to describe someone who is just an insignificant part of a larger entity...a nobody...a slave...a worker bee.  It was once said that a cog in the machine simply runs around in circles, gets worn out, and is then replaced.  

Aren't we all cogs? 

Kings...Queens...Executives...actors...bankers...Quakers...farmers...landscapers...burger-flippers...travel agents...poop scooper-uppers at the circus...we are ALL part of something larger.  We all perform our function to make something bigger happen.  Who is ever really at the top?  Sure, some of us are bigger cogs than others, but size isn't everything.  That's when it came to me...cogs are getting a bad wrap.   In fact, I think being a cog is the natural order of things.  We are all replaceable.  Every last one of us will "wear out" eventually.  We will all be replaced, displaced, or misplaced at some point in our existence. While we may feel like we are running around in circles and just getting worn out, think of it this way... You may be a cog in the machine but you can always chose the machine.  Our life is what we make it.  The cogs makes life happen all around us.  WE make life happen all around us.  We are all a part of something larger in life.  We all matter. 

The Bottom Line
It really does take all kinds of cogs to make the world turn.  We should all be proud cogs and realize that we can choose what kind of machine we want to be a part of.  That is liberation.  That is freedom. At the end of the day, we are all part of the biggest and most important machine ever made...Life.  Make your circles count.