Thank you for the column on the invisible people (“Invisible People Are All Around Us,” Dec. 19, by Ross Werland)! I am with you on appreciating these people who make such a difference in our lives. I have worked at College of DuPage for 16 years and have made friends with the people who care for my building.
It started many years ago when I used to work late into the evening, and the cleaning people would chat while they cleaned my workspace. I started to also talk with the daytime cleaning people and over the years have made many friends on many different levels. We have talked of family, buying houses, etc.
I have never understood the “inferior” rap cleaning people get; who among us leaves a room cleaner and shinier than it was when we entered?
It was an important story; there are no little people.
–Joanne Witzkowski, Montgomery
Simplistic `wisdom’
The message in your article about Bill Kurtis [Words of Wisdom, Dec. 19] was, in my opinion, overly simplistic.
The quote he gave from Gandhi might be a perfect fit for his life, since he was blessed with some very positive personal strengths and good fortune. Things worked out quite nicely in his career, anchoring on Channel 2 for many years, and then being in a good position to move on to documentary work. Most don’t have the good looks, intelligence or professionalism and poise that Bill has had.
Unfortunately, many people are saddled in careers that are a weary chore from day to day. They have no choice but to press on, since others are often depending on them for their basic needs. And they may not have had the resources at a young age to better themselves or the maturity and wisdom to know what they really would like to do in life. And many make choices early in life and end up being disillusioned with serious regrets. How can an 18- to 22-year-old really know what he wants to do for the remaining 50 or so years of his life?
So, simply saying “be strong in yourself” or “find out what you like to do in life, then commit” is easier said than done. Or if a person comes to realize what they would like to do, they normally don’t have the financial resources that are required. This is where Thoreau’s famous quote “most men lead lives of quiet desperation” comes from.
Bill Kurtis has had a very successful life, and I also am quite satisfied with how my career has evolved, but the everyday man normally doesn’t have it so rosy.
–Rolf Thoryk, La Grange
