Dust

There are those domestically inclined persons who find it a matter of life-saving necessity to clear a room of dust. Often. Whether with broom, feather duster, or Swiffer, the dust is removed from floor, shelf, TV, cat, shoe, bread, plant. Everything.

Somehow, no matter how zealous the dust-phobic are, the dust returns. In fact, it can never really be gotten rid of. It’s a natural product of the death and sloughing off of a human’s skin cells. Well, the biology of the matter is unnecessarily gruesome. My point is this: Why remove dust if it’s just going to return again?

Now, I wouldn’t make that argument — the one you think I’m going to make. We’ll call it the helplessness-apathy argument. It goes thus: Because the problem regenerates constantly, I’ll just stop trying to solve it. It often becomes this: Because my efforts will have no long-term effect, I’ll just relent. The problem is relentless, so I should not be.

This may be a suitable argument where dust is concerned. It’s certainly not suitable, however, where it touches on human affairs. Imagine if we were to say about murder what I might say about dust: Murderers are relentless, so we should not be. Disaster!

So let dust be a lesson to you.