"I love Seneca's letters because they're written in the spirit in which I was educated in my family — not to look for fame and fortune, but to have a simple, honest, honorable life."
"The richness is in me, in my heart and in my head, not in my pockets."
I often run into janitors at work late in the evenings. One always has a big smile on his face. He told me he is from Cambodia and grateful that he can provide for his family back at home even if he has not seen his wife and children for years. Another is also light-spirited; I heard her singing in Spanish as she was cleaning up a big glass door in the hall way, as if she was doing something really fun and exciting. The third janitor is a Polish lady, probably in her sixties. She apparently took great pride in her work that she once reprimanded me for wasting an extra plastic trash bag, like a grandma reprimanding a child. These people, apparently at the "lowest rank "of the society, certainly have a lot to teach us all.
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| Mr. Gac Filipaj , a janitor at Columbia University, graduated from the university after over a decade of hardwork. (Photo Credit: Jason DeCrow with AP) |
