In the lobby of the hospital where my father is a patient, there sits a player piano, plinking out a variety of tunes for the enjoyment of patients and visitors. This calls to my mind a man by the name of Tommy, with whom my father was once associated. Let me introduce you to Tommy. Tommy was another man who made his living by rebuilding pianos. He worked a niche market; he specialized in rebuilding player pianos. I have no idea how modern player pianos work in the computer age, but the old ones, the ones that are now true collector's items, were two complex machines combined into one. The first machine was the piano itself; the second was pneumatic machinery that was crowded in around the piano parts. Tommy, therefore, was a specialist at the repair and rebuilding of a particularly complex type of piano.
There is something else to understand about Tommy. He was blind. The rebuilding of player pianos was a skill learned long before he lost his sight, but during the time my father knew him, Tommy could only barely distinguish day time from night time.
Tommy did not have to work. Without vision, he could easily have qualified for public assistance and sat at home bemoaning his handicap, but he was not the type of man to do that. The thought of accepting welfare was repugnant to him, so much so that he would rather work on complex machinery that he could not see than take a dime from the public purse. Therefore, he spent his days feeling his way around the inner workings of pneumatic player pianos.
Despite Tommy's determination to make a go of earning his own living, the odds were stacked against his ability to do so without the assistance of a sighted person. A piano shop is always a hodge-podge of tools, supplies, and piano pieces arranged haphazardly on workbenches, in boxes, and often the on the floor itself. This was treacherous territory for someone trying to navigate without sight, not only from a safety perspective, but also from a sheer profitability perspective. For instance, if a tool went missing, how was Tommy supposed to find it amongst the clutter? I imagine that Tommy's answer to that dilemma was not to lose tools in the first place, but a plan like that only goes so far, especially in a piano shop. Or suppose he ran out of a specific supply item. How was he to find a telephone number for his supplier? Again, I imagine that Tommy had an answer; have all phone numbers memorized. And again, such a plan only goes so far.
The problem, of course, was that even in a best case scenario, with someone to assist him, Tommy's plan to provide for himself was not going to be a road to riches. It would be hard work that would barely pay the bills. This was where my father came into the picture. My father thought that Tommy's willingness to provide for himself was a noble thing, and he wanted to help. So it was, that my father, a skilled piano technician worth a good pay rate, went to work for Tommy at a rate only slightly above minimum wage. There my father remained employed for a period of about five years, using his time and his skills in support of an honorable man who needed someone's help.
This world is full of people willing to take other people's money to provide for those in need. In America, we even have a major political party dedicated to that proposition. What we need are people like Tommy, not willing to accept taxpayer money and the corresponding meddling hand of the government, and what we need are people like my father, who though they do so at great personal expense, are willing to come alongside people like Tommy.
Speaking of the meddling hand of the government, my father had no more use for government schools than Tommy had for welfare. So let me mention here that despite my dad making just above minimum wage, and despite my mother being a stay at home mom, my parents were putting three boys through private school during the time my father worked for Tommy.
So when somone tells me they cannot afford for mom to stay home with the kids or that public school is the only option for their children, I know that they really mean that their lifestyle cannot afford those things. And Washington, I smell what you're shoveling. One Tommy and one Stanley, quietly working with their hands, have done more to resolve poverty than the whole compassionate lot of you.
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