Saints, Beer and Hard Work

Sorry it’s been busy and I haven’t had time to indulge in blogging. But I promised: Saint’s Beer and Hard Work. So here goes.

One Saturday afternoon, I was out with a friend looking for a drum which now sits gathering dust in a corner across from the partially played training DVD. But this is not about the drum.

Our trek took us to a music shop near where I used to work, so I stopped in a bar I used to frequent for lunch. Sadly, the place had changed hands. And the new owners had changed some of the menu and the tone of the place was more dour than I recall. But still, the food wasn’t bad, and the new owner was friendly. But the funny thing was that they had a statue of a saint up among the beer bottles.

So I asked about this. And the owner told me that he was saint Raymond, the patron saint of new business. And then she outlined the “ceremony” she said she was told to perform to gain his favor.

Now, as a Roman Catholic, I will admit that we have a lot of rituals, but we do not practice witchcraft. And what she outlined was a fertility ceremony. Which was actually not inappropriate as the Saint Raymond is actually the patron of quite labor for pregnant women (and freedom for prisoners). But the statue was actually someone else. (not sure who).

But I digress. I kind of had to laugh. I suppose its one thing to look for the short cut. And we all cross our fingers and hope for luck, so I guess looking for mystical help isn’t so far out there.

And, I’m not saying that the new owner is lazy. But I would think if you were going to trust on magic rather than hard work, you’d at least put in the effort to learn the right spell. Make sure you’re praying to the right person.

But it all goes back to what I was saying before. People don’t want to put in the effort; even the effort to take the right short-cut. They want to be at the end point and have been told that the desire is as good as the effort.

You cannot invent without effort. You cannot build a successful business without effort. You cannot do more than just beat on the drum without effort.

Things don’t just happening. So with that said I go back to work now.

Until Later,
Charles

And for the record the patron of New Business is Homobonus.