I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work at a paper mill during summer breaks as a college student. My father was and is an employee of a mill in Savannah, GA, and at that time the economy was so strong, they needed all the help they could get. I could have worked a double(a 16 hour shift) everyday if it wasn't for old buddies and the beach. I made more money than my friends at the smoothie shop and I feel like I learned a great deal about industry.
On my very first day, I learned lessons that have stayed with me for the last 18 years. It has to do with a ringing bell that crossed my mind today, so I thought I would write about it.
I put on my first hard hat and pair of steel toe boots and walked through the mill towards my training room. Everything I passed was huge, hot, dangerous, powerful, intimidating, and unforgiving. The manufacturing equipment required to produce paper at scale will not be interrupted by a human limb, and the majority of life that is lost in the large scale manufacturing process is very quick and painless.
I finally made my way to the middle of the mill and I sat in that training room, nearly trembling, with a fellow rookie(Andre 6' 2" 225 MLB Georgia Southern) waiting to begin my first day on a job in a place that didn't have a food court. My foreman walked in, and began to speak. I didn't hear a word that came out of his mouth. I couldn't tell you what he was supposed to be teaching me. I was scared to death to be in this environment in the first place, and in addition to that there was a bell that was sounding off like an alarm in the back ground that consumed my every thought and instinct. A loud ringing bell. This bell sounded like every fire drill or movie special effect I had ever heard. Something bad was happening. As the foreman continued to move his mouth and speak in Charlie Brown's parents language, the sound of the bell grew unbearable in my ears. I looked over over at Andre and could tell that he was just as scared, if not more than I was. Andre didn't seem to be the type of guy to scare easy. I didn't want to interrupt my foreman this early into my first day on the job, but 30 seconds into his talk, I stopped him cold. "What is that bell?"!!!!!! "Do we need to run?"
What happened next was like a who's on first comedy routine.
Foreman "What bell"
Me "THAT bell, right there!"
Foreman "there's a bell?"
Me "Yeah that bell, that one right there"
Foreman"What are you talking about?"
Andre (scared to death and joining in to help my cause) "THAT BELL"
Foreman"What are you college boys talking about, I don't hear anything?"
Me "Cant you hear that alarm bell?"
Foreman..puzzled look
Now I'm sure that foreman has a hearing problem. Lord knows my dad does. 20 years in a paper mill has that effect. That being said, I can assure you this bell was so loud that he could "hear" the bell. He just couldn't "hear" it. He had no idea what we were talking about. The reason he couldn't hear that bell is because he had been hearing that same bell for 8 to 16 hours a day for the last 25 years of his life. It just didn't mean anything to him anymore. It was a part of his environment, a part of his day. Andre and I were new to an environment where we were surrounded by equipment that could end our lives before we even knew what had happened to us. We heard bells like this during fire alarms, tornado drills, or before explosions in movies. We heard a warning to our impending doom, and the foreman heard nothing. It was a part of his day. How could this man not hear this bell?
So, after boring you with that story, I guess I should come to a conclusion. The fact is, I'm not sure if there is a single conclusion, but the bell is a lesson that has many applications to me. I didn't know I was learning a lesson at the time, but I think about that bell frequently. I realize that not everyone lives in my environment and I have to learn to respect the fears and unknowns of those that are unfamiliar. I realize that bells really do ring for a reason and no matter how many times we hear them, it is dangerous to forget what they are there for. I think of the fact that the three of us were hearing the exact same sound and two of us thought it was the most important sound in our lives, and the other person didn't even know what we were talking about. What bells do I not here everyday? What bells do the people around me hear that I am ignoring or have no meaning to me? Am I continually trying to remind myself of the bells that were once important to me? Do I realize that importance is relevant?
Are you listening to the bell?
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