Valued

I have been listening lately to a podcast from an Irish fellow named David McWilliams. The idea of the podcast is to explain economic matters in simple terms. He explains his motto thus “I’ve always thought what is complicated is rarely important and what is important is rarely complicated”. I like that. A lot. David has a way of yarning with his Irish friends which I find soothing. Maybe it is the simple ideas or maybe it is the thick Irish accents. But I love it.

?Recently he talked about the population of Ireland rising to around 10 million in the near future. The discussion revolved around the looming shortage of both teachers and nurses in Ireland. ?David believes that nurses and teachers are not really valued in Ireland and that they are mostly taken for granted.

?With the recent industrial action by nurses in WA, I thought there were some valuable parallels in his musings. Is there anything worse than being taken for granted? I can empathise with our local nurses. After helping us all battle through the last 2 or 3 years of the Covid epidemic, they have every right to feel that way. I think their anger stems largely from the feeling of being taken for granted, and of being taken advantage of. When times were tough, we leaned heavily on the medical profession for support.

?So, at this special time of the year, I ask you to consider those around you, either in a personal or professional capacity. Do you take them for granted? Maybe it is time to rectify that.