Andons and Grandmothers

Wiring Diagram

When I mowed the lawn today, I happened upon a manual sprinkler head hooked up to a length of old garden hose. Thinking it was just a piece of hose, a remnant from some old attempt to augment the automatic in-ground sprinkler system, I picked it up and gave it a yank. Much to my surprise, the hose was quite long. It ran behind our tool shed where I assumed it ended, but no, it ran the entire length of the shed and beyond. I walked around the shed and continued tracing the line as it ran along the house, and I eventually lost it in behind the ferns planted there. I gave it a tug, but I think the plants had grown around it, securing it in place and concealing where it might have gone.

The incident reminded me of the assembly plant where I used to work. It had a miles and miles of conveyor lines, and it had the Toyoda Andon System. These conveyor systems were complicated in themselves, but with andon, each workstation along the line could stop the line by pulling a cord or hitting a switch. Additionally, some pieces of equipment used in the process could automatically stop the line. Then there was the lighing, power outlets, fans, and lots of other equipment and power tools.

Wiring this whole thing together was a total nightmare. Over the years, so many things had been added or modified that there was nobody who really knew where all the wiring went. The maintenance people could and often did spend hours just trying to figure out where something was plugged in and how it was integrated into the wiring scheme. There really were no up-to-date schematics.

I think peoples' behavior is like that. Over the thousands of years we been around, there has been a lot of modification to what people think is good and bad behavior. There is stuff we don't do any more because somewhere along the line people began to think it wasn't a good idea. We forget why we thought the way we did.

In the movie The Fifth Element, a priest (not a Catholic one) shoos away a little boy, and as he does, he tells the boy Go with God, be safe from evil. I've always been struck by and challenged by that line. In the fictional culture of the film, there was a mindset that allowed for an intimate awareness of good and evil. There was a recognition that the choice between good and evil was personal and of consequence.

Upon entering a home, my mother would frequently greet the owners with a traditional Polish greeting: Pochwalony Jezus Chrystus, praised be Jesus Christ. The proper response would be Na wieki wiekow, amen, for ever and ever, amen. The tradition came to her from my  grandmother who had left Poland sometime around 1910. It was a way to remind the greeter and the greeted that they were part of something far bigger than themselves, that there were standards to which they tried to hold themselves.

I do not say things like that, and if I try, I feel a bit silly.

Still, it's a good concept, this good and evil thing. I do believe that there is good and evil in the world -- there is the possibility of peace and order, and there is the risk of chaos and destruction. And I do hope that people look for what is good. I do hope that none of the rampant cruelty in the world overwhelms them.

So go with God, be safe from evil. Spend some time figuring out where you're plugged in and how you fit into the bigger picture.

I know...it sounds silly.