Salt: A short story about Jack.

Jack woke up like he did every other morning: fighting a huge temptation. The snooze button. It is deadly and has the power to seriously wreck a day. Every morning it is a fight.

Today Jack won. This was not true every morning. He is averaging a 60% success rate at the moment. Not great, but slightly above average.

Ironically, his fight with the alarm clock is quite symbolic of life. He is, in his own words, slightly above average. “Nothing to see here” as the police say at the crime scene, trying to usher you past quickly. And there isn’t anything worth seeing with Jack. Everything about Jack’s life seemed to be the same as everyone else. The house, the car, the debts, the job, the kids and the holiday (if they can afford it this year). One day rolled into the next without any real distinction. Sure, there are a few treasured memories and the odd victory scattered in his history annuals, but apart from that – life had blended into a slight blur – nothing really stood out.

Like his colleagues at work, he had the mantra: one day things will be better.

Unfortunately it was blind hope – you know, the kind of hope that blinds you to the inevitable and obvious truth: things aren’t going to change, they are going to be exactly the same each and every day and the “one day things will be better” medicine provides some temporary relief and life is endured again through rationalisation.

Mediocrity had slowly chocked yesteryear’s dreams from Jack. It made sense though; he now had a wife and kids to support and nurture. Mind you, even the marriage and fathering part of his life had settled into a default routine. Jack still loved his wife. Still loved his kids. But he had lost the energy years ago to be really great at being a husband and Dad. Enter the default routine with all its appeal and safety.

From Society’s point of view though, Jack was great. He had entered the system that wants us all, with evangelical zeal, to become average. Jack was one of Society’s testimonies of average. You want average, look at Jack and see what you can have. Secretly Jack despised all the red tape, health and safety nonsense and heavy-handed stifling of the human spirit caused by following Society’s rules. But he was a member of the Church of Society and followed it along. “Tow the party line” was the motto. Default is its greatest appeal. Don’t cause ripples or waves. Rules work.

Jack had become safe, manageable and predictable. And that is just what Society wanted him to be.

Occasionally, he did try a few different things. He listened to a tape on goal setting once. Sounded exciting (something he’d not felt for a while). But any effort he made was not strong enough to escape the gravitational pull of his default life, so he concluded that was not for him but perhaps for a chosen, select few heroes that arise every now and then.

In his heart he knew he had a book to write, and a business to start. But they would always stay there and never be allowed to venture out. “Be realistic” he would tell himself when on those odd occasions that they surfaced in his mind. Of course, what he was really telling himself was that he couldn’t do it. “Be realistic” is reminding yourself that you are a failure who can’t do those things. That is reality: it won’t work.

It seemed his son, Sam, followed a different set of rules. He wanted to be a spaceman. Then a fireman. Then a footballer that plays on the world’s stage in front of thousands and scores the winning goal for his country in the world cup finals. It is a scene that has been rehearsed many times. More often than not though, Sam just wanted to be a hero that destroys bad guys and protects the innocent.

Jack heads for the bathroom, and is awake enough to see that the towel is not on the radiator. He found it in Sam’s room – he had been using it as a cape, again, and forgot to put it back, again.

Jack knew his job was to teach his son to be a man, and in Jack’s house – that means learning to colour inside the lines, tidy your room, save your money, not to do anything too dangerous (as defined by Church of Society of course) and ultimately find his default: the 9-5, house, kids, car, debts and, if possible – the holiday. But Jack didn’t want to teach him this just yet – let him enjoy childhood just that little bit longer. Let him have his dreams for now, but soon Jack would teach Sam the “Be realistic” lesson.

Breakfast was a little different today. It was the usual cup of same-brand coffee, the same cereal with the same milk, but his wife (Susan) brought apple juice by mistake. It was a nice change from the orange juice. Every now and then a little change is good for the soul.

It was quickly back into routine when Jack got in his car and went the usual way to work and got caught in the same traffic. He has started to recognise some of his fellow traffic-sufferers and waves to a few of them with a shoulder shrug that means “oh well”. At least the music is different on the same-old radio station. Same genre as usual though.

This was default in operation, and it was easy – boy was it easy. It didn’t require any real thought or effort. This was what Church of Society promised – and it was coming to pass.

Jack got his coffee and sat down at his desk (the same as everyone else’s desk in the office). He looked at the photo of his family and smiled. This is the reason I am doing this. I have a purpose. Keep going. Only 20 more years until retirement. Then all of this would have been worth it.

“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes bland and loses its saltiness, can anything make it salty again? No. It is useless. It just lies there, white and bland and grainy. It is tossed out, thrown away, or trampled”

Matt 5:13, The Voice: New Testament (Thomas Nelson)