Dear Readers,
I was recently reading an article about the job market — what the highest paying occupations are these days, what positions are most in demand, etc. It’s not that I’m planning to reenter the work force anytime soon, but you never know.
Did you realize “professional sleeper” is an actual job title? Yep, people get paid good money to participate in scientific sleep studies. (Who knew that sleeping on the job was not always a bad thing!)
If you enjoy swimming, you can make a good living as a golf ball diver retrieving golf balls from the bottom of golf course water hazards. (Having spent two frightfully tense years living alongside a Jacksonville Fla. retention pond in which an alligator resided, I strongly recommend you not pursue a golf ball diver career at a course anywhere south of St. Louis!)
The impact of an influencer
The most lucrative profession I read about was that of an “influencer.” I had never heard of that one before; have you?
Apparently, an influencer is an expert at the art of marketing themselves on social media; the posts and videos of their mundane daily lives move millions of followers to change beliefs and behavior based on the beliefs and behaviors of these complete strangers.
“What?!?!”
I kid you not.
One of the most famous influencers of all time is not an expert at anything. She’s basically a celebrity because she’s famous for being famous, yet she’s paid $2.14 million dollars for each post.
If she’s carrying a certain designer hand bag one day while walking her poodle, the next day, sales of that exact same hand bag will go through the roof.
In your life, dear Readers, is there any one individual who has influenced you more than anyone else?
Is there someone who has had a tremendous impact on how you lived your life?
On the choices you made?
On the products you purchased?
With Easter only two weeks away, I must vehemently disagree with awarding this purse person the title of “most famous influencer of all time.”
The greatest influencer
That title belongs to only one person, the person of Jesus Christ, the greatest influencer that ever lived and that ever will live.
Dr. James Allen Francis expresses it best in his poem, “One Solitary Life”.
He was born in an obscure village,
The child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in still another village,
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
Until he was thirty.
Then for three years
He was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or owned a house.
He didn’t go to college.
He never visited a big city.
He never traveled two hundred miles
From the place where he was born.
He did none of the things
One usually associates with greatness.
He had no credentials but himself.
He was only thirty-three
When the tide of public opinion turned against him.
His friends ran away.
He was turned over to his enemies.
And went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross
Between two thieves.
While he was dying,
His executioners gambled for his clothing,
The only property he had on Earth.
When he was dead,
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend.
Twenty centuries have come and gone,
And today he is the central figure
Of the human race,
And the leader of mankind’s progress.
All the armies that ever marched,
All the navies that ever sailed,
All the parliaments that ever sat,
All the kings that ever reigned,
Put together have not affected
The life of man on Earth
As much as that
One Solitary Life.
Linda E. Kelly is a member of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Madison.