I PUMPED…eight gallons of gasoline into the tank of my 2008 Harvest Moon Convertible Volkswagen Beetle. I glanced at the convenience store marquee and noted that my petro was costing me $3.25 a gallon. (Well…it was actually $3.249 per gallon. Why do they do that?) I only glanced at the well-lit information because I really don’t care. I’m not a ‘gas price watcher.’ I don’t check the ‘miles per gallon’ in my automobile. I have friends who religiously follow and fret and figure and grumble about gasoline related issues. They know all about OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) and guarded reserves and dollars per barrel and price fixing. Me? I just fill up and drive…
I SHOPPED…for printer ink yesterday. Now there’s something that puzzles me. Next to printer ink, gasoline looks like a deal! I can purchase a whole gallon of gas for the low, low price of $3.25 per gallon. This gasoline has to be drawn from the belly of the earth, pumped through miles of pipe, shipped by rail and rig, stored in environmentally stable storage facilities, pumped through state of the art machinery that will take a credit card AND is conveniently covered by an awning! But ink?!? Ink? You just squeeze it from a plant or seed (or even chemically synthesize it in a lab), ship it via any postal carrier and store it in a little plastic box. It doesn’t even come with an awning! And what does printer ink cost? It’s about $38.00 for a tablespoon! Okay…two tablespoons…
I LIFTED…the tiny cup of juice from the silver tray as a fellow parishioner served me. I listened as the minister lifted his cup and said, “The blood of Christ; the cup of salvation.” And all of sudden, gasoline and ink seemed
extremely cheap…
I am troubled by the cost of many things…somethings are just priced by a different measuring system to cover the real cost up…deception. Years many years I have counted costs and I seam to never get the true value on certain things therefore mant outcome is incorrect. What does it cost? Is it worth it? The answer is based on evidence or feelings you must decide the truth alone.