5/18/2020
It is a quiet Monday morning. Not too unusual, but a bit irritating. When you show up and open a business which is customer-activated, that is, customers entering the business or there will be no business, and the customers don’t come in at the rate you expected or in the manner you need them, it can get frustrating. I could try to wave them in off the streets, but I’m not sure we would obtain the desired results. When we first started this business 5 1/2 year s ago, and a day started like this, I would grab a bunch of coupons and hit the street walking and handing out coupons for a free gallon of water! It produced results, but it looks unseemly for a veteran business like ours to do that now. Am I wrong? Is that what I should be doing? No.
We’ve changed our dynamic so much! From the simple small business approach trying to educate people on the value of Alkaline Water to their life, we’ve become a vital purveyor of many things healthy, not just water alone. So, our catering attempts are broader and scaled up to include a multitude of “healthy alternatives” not only for water, but for other healthy drinks, for diet substitutes which help people off the habit of “junk” food and into better personal health habits, even including food supplements and health restoration products! Now we are watching as that dynamic incentivizes our niche, widening the acceptance to a broader audience (hopefully) as we go. The more people who recognize the benefits of our product line, the higher the number of our clientele, and the greater our success.
Well, so much for a commercial about my daughter’s business in which she allows me to participate, I’ll now get on to more sophisticated use of your time as a reader. Reading blogs should be helpful, don’t you think? The evolution of reading is pretty interesting to me. When the King James translators were commissioned by the king to present an accurate English rendering of the bible it was to be “fit to be read unto congregations” as the first several printings said in the title. By signifying it was “Appointed to be Read in Churches,” it was given the name suffix, 1611 Authorized Version.
Inside the first generation to have this great tome read to them, up pops the antagonists to say, “Who does this king think he is, claiming the authority from God to write his own version?” which, of course, was never the point. The king authorized the Realm’s ownership of the translation and thereby authorized the clergy to use it as they had privilege to do. King James, nor the Crown ever made money from the version, only the printers made wages off the labor of it. Would the antagonists deny the printer’s right to earn a living? (How insolent can become those who would stand in opposition!)
Once printing became a more common mass production, personal books and bibles became usual and ordinary. Another 2 or 3 generations began to produce large volumes of many authors’ writings, be they an accurate account of history, or a fictionalized history, or just plain fiction, great volumes began to be formed and common people learned the art of reading, the value of reading, the habit of reading, and through advanced schooling, the necessity of reading.
But, then came radio(the 1920s.) Radio brought first entertainment, then news and commentary. Before a generation had passed, radio was the normal evening entertainment in homes to such a degree that parents had to insist their children read or they never would! Then came the war, the second massive war of the last century, and with it the insistence of dance music, records played in massive volumes, to the degradation of the reading habits of millions of young and old alike. But then,….
Came television. Oh my, did things change! Visual programming on the “tellie” swallowed up the living rooms of Americans in a way the libraries had never infiltrated! Reading became less habitual and perhaps, it was thought, less important. Moreover, within a decade or so, came full color television! Hey! Recliner chair, 6-pak of beer, color tv, what else could a man need, right?
Yes, I knew working men who thought that was all they needed. Then, to enhance this, what did we get? PAY TV! Getting the sports programming and such stuff 24/7/365! Make that, Recliner chair, (2) 6-paks of beer, and ESPN multi-channels! There, it just couldn’t get better! Then along came an end of sports. What? No! that can’t be! A flu virus stopped it all, from every pro sport to every college sport, to every high school sport, to every little league sport. Nothing scheduled. Whoa!
Enter reading again. Well, partially. That’s where this blog comes in. Most of us who have lived through the evolution beginning with radio till today have discovered we can read (at least) a few pages of blogs. It won’t wear us out too much. So,
Thanks for READING, the Elder
the Elder's Blog 