In the accounting world, in a manufacturing environment, there are stages of inventory which delineate where a product is within the process. It begins with raw materials, which then move through one or more “work in process” inventories, until a final product comes off the assembly line. The product is labeled and a price placed on it, which incorporates all the material, labor, and other overhead costs associated with creating the product, plus some profit margin. It is then moved to, and resides in, the finished goods inventory. Hopefully it is sold, at which point final inventory is relieved and cash is in the bank. This is the life of a manufactured product within the world of accounting. For the purchaser of the product, if it is something with a calculable lifespan and not a disposable product, the item is depreciated, meaning, over time, its value is reduced. At some point it no longer has value, or has become obsolete, and is disposed of.
I think people are a work in process. I know I am. The raw materials are those we are born with – a body and a mind. The body has much growing and development to accomplish, strength to be added, coordination and balance to be mastered. The mind, an empty slate at birth, is prepped and ready to accept the visual, audio, tactile, and other sensory experiences around it, the memories of which will be stored for future reference in this fabulously intricate and powerful computer we call the brain. The mind also sucks into its vortex the knowledge and wisdom of those who came before, as well as those met along the journey. And, along with knowledge and wisdom, it is also a receptacle for the prejudices, biases, and fears of those with whom it came in contact. Infant, toddler, child, pre-teen, teen, young adult, adult, older adult, senior, and at some point, in the hopefully distant future, dead.
As we move through our various WIP inventories, we are labeled. Good, bad, smart, troublesome, creative, over-achiever, under-achiever, driven, lazy, arrogant, insensitive, compassionate, loving, kind, ethical, hateful, disturbed, fun, boring. You get my drift. Sometimes, we live up to the labels attached, whether good or bad. Sometimes we don’t. And sometimes we just move to another point in our life, where an old label is removed, or pushed to the side, and a new one added. As we age, we either become more jaded by what has come before, or more open to what lies ahead. Sometimes, we are depreciated, devalued, and prepped for disposal because those around us can no longer see the wealth of knowledge and experience residing in our frail and unresponsive bodies. Or our mind has betrayed us, no longer letting the light that was us, out.
We are a work in process. We learn and grow every day. I have not always been the person I want to be, nor am I yet the person I want to become. I have regrets, like most. Had I only known then, what I know now. But those experiences were integral in shaping who I am today, this moment. I believe, regrets aside, these experiences have made me a better person. Each day, a new path unfolds ahead of me, and I have the opportunity to learn something new, and to become just a little bit better than yesterday. I relish this opportunity. I will never be all that I wish to be, but I will never stop trying to be just a little better than the day before. I don’t want to be moved to the Finished Goods inventory, and I surely don’t want to be fully depreciated and put in the scrap pile. I have too much yet to learn. I am still a work in process.
~ jwb ~
