The Meaning Of A Dot

When I was in high school, I went "camping" with friends at some public park facility.  At a low fee, you get to rent a good-sized apartment unit for a group.  The unit comes with basic furnishing.  Renters may also borrow pots and pans and other utensils at the warden's office for free.

After spending a few fun days at the park, it was time to clean up the place, return the equipment and the keys before we go.

The warden took one glance at our pans and said, "They are dirty.  Take them back and clean them again."  We were perplexed.  The pans looked perfectly fine to us.  However, he was the boss at the camp site.  So, we complied.

When we brought the pots back, he took one look at the pans and said exactly the same thing: "They are dirty.  Take them back and clean them again."  

A friend was not amused by his demeanor and threw in a cheeky comeback, "What do you mean by dirty?  I don't see any problem with them.  They are perfectly clean.  You are just picking on us!"  

"The pans were not in this condition when I lent them to you." the warden spoke sternly.  "Look at here, and here, and here!" as he pointed at various tiny spots on the outside of the pans, "All these specks are new.  Whatever mess you make, you clean it up.  Go scrub them out before you come back again." 

"Here!" He handed us a canister of scrubbing cleaner powder.  "If this is the help you need."

We returned to our unit feeling deflated.  We could not leave without returning the keys.  The only way we could return the keys was to have the warden accept the pans.  We had to do as he said.  It felt ridiculous to have to clean again what, to us, was already very clean, but we did it anyways.

We scrubbed and scrubbed at every single tiny dot we could find on the outside of these cheap tin pans until the whole thing is impeccably shiny.  

When we returned to his office, the warden greeted us with the biggest smile ever.  "Ahhh!  This is more like it!  Good job, young ladies."  He happily took the pans as well as the keys.

"Were you playing a prank on us?  Are you trying to give us a hard time?" My feisty friend went at it again as the warden was putting the pans back into the cabinet.  "Why did you have to be so finicky about the pans?  It was just one tiny dot at the bottom of the pan.  Who cares?"  

The warden said, as he slowly turned around, "Well, to you, it maybe just an insignificant tiny dot.  But these pans will continue to be used by hundreds of thousands of people.  If I allow every group to leave one dot, how long will it take before the pan to become all black?"  

The warden put on a curious smirk and placed his face in front of my friend's.  "Young lady, it is my job to make sure everybody has the best experience when they come to use the facilities here.  When you look at the pan, you only think about the present moment.  When I look at the pans, I think about the future.  That's why the one tiny dot carries such different meanings to you and to me."

I had fun at the park; I did not enjoy the pan-scrubbing experience.  Yet, the words of the warden still reverberate in my head to this day.