Ask me about VW (Chattanooga plant) and the UAW potential strike, if you want my opinion. However, without you asking I will respond to 3 words of concern: “what we deserve.”
If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it…well, you know, a lot. And every time I hear it I cringe. That’s all the Union messaging pushes—you deserve more. Deserve, they say.
But what do we actually “deserve”? Well, how about we ask Jesus? And no, I’m not talking about hell. Jesus told a parable in Matthew 20 of workers being hired by a vineyard owner. He hired several groups at different times, each time making a wage offer they voluntarily accepted.
However, when it came time to receive their wages at the end of the day, the ones hired first complained. They were upset that the last ones hired late in the day were paid the same amount as those who worked all day. But how did the vineyard owner reply? “Did you not agree to the wage I offered when I hired you?”
Now, some might say, “But Jesus also said in Luke 10:7 that ‘the laborer is WORTHY of his hire.’” True, but in the same verse Jesus tells his disciples to take whatever they are given.
All I’m saying is that I felt privileged and blessed to be hired by Volkswagen. I had no experience with that industry. I had never even worked in a factory. So, even though the work was difficult at the beginning, I was very happy to receive the wage and benefits provided me (especially the lease car)! They didn’t hire me by force, nor did they deceive me regarding my pay scale. They offered me a job at a particular wage (just like in the parable Jesus told) and I accepted it.
So did every other employee I work with.
The only thing ANYONE deserved was for the other party to do what they agreed to. Jesus would probably ask, “Why does what other companies pay their workers make you deserve more than what you agreed to here?”
Therefore, no, I do not believe I “deserve” anything more than what I agreed to when I was hired. That is why I believe that the UAW’s primary argument (what we deserve) is unethical, unbiblical, and immoral when attached to threats (like to strike).
Feel free to Google it if you’re interested. I’m sick of this Marxist nonsense.
Do you have a hard job? Like, is it physically demanding? Are you usually worn out and too tired to pet the dog when you get home?
Well, I have a job like that. Granted, it’s not as difficult as loading garbage trucks. It’s also easier than performing a Christian funeral for Ozzy Osborn. However, it still takes a lot of effort and energy.
However, since the 18th of June, I have been doing nothing more than coming to work. I sit in the break room for 8 hours. Sitting here is where I am at this moment. It is harder, more draining, and certainly more boring than any physical work I could be doing.
Back on June 18, I was at work at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga. I pivoted wrong and twisted my left knee. According to the medical professionals, I have two meniscus tears and a sprained MCL. There may be even more damage to a tendon or ligament, or something. This happened on the job. Workers comp is taking care of everything. The onsite medical and physical therapy staff are also helping.
But here’s the thing: I still have to come to work, even if I don’t work! They are literally paying me my regular hourly wage to sit on my butt and drink coffee. I’ve even been able to do a lot of video editing.
And that’s the hard part of this employer-mandated rest. Sitting here for eight hours every day is making me tired and making me fat. I’m not getting the exercise that comes with working on the line in the body shop. My vision has gotten worse from constantly being on my iPhone in low-light conditions. But worst of all, there’s the paranoia. I just KNOW people are talking about me!
Then again, why am I complaining? As King David asked, “Why art thou cast down, o my soul?” As James prescribed, I should be counting it all “joy.” Well, I don’t know about joy, but I am thankful for a place to work that allows me this opportunity. Even though it may seem silly to those outside my body, the pain in my knee is still bad enough to make me lose sleep. I avoid going up stairs altogether.
So, unlike some bloggers who stop writing and fade away, I’m still here. I may be focusing all my free time on making video content. However, I still find that I have to write out what’s on my mind to stay sane. Just last night I renewed my annual fees for WordPress, so I guess I’ve even more reason to stick around.
Have a great weekend, my friends. Enjoy your health – if you have it. Spend time with your family if at all possible, and then go to church somewhere this Sunday (unless you’re Adventist). If you have some extra time, please check out my YouTube channels. They are called The Humble Horologist and The Humble Word. I’m even posting to TikTok pretty regularly.
You all know the old saying, “If it looks like a duck, etc…it is a duck,” don’t you? When we see something that looks and acts like another something with which we are already very familiar, the most logical explanation for the similarity is to initially assume is that the two somethings are, in fact, alike. They don’t have to be exactly alike to be of the same something, just like a ball is a ball regardless of the size, texture, or chemical makeup. Even my 2 year-old granddaughter, based on her short life experience, is not wrong when she notices a spherical object, points, and yells out, “Ball!”
We carry with us information and definitions acquired through experience, along with developed presuppositions When we observe a buzzing factory, we assume it to be a buzzing factory based on what we already know from experience about building or making things. To describe the factory, then, as something other than what is observable and recognizable as a place of production would require one of two things: either the observer has never seen or had any concept of manufacturing and assembly, or that he is being intellectually dishonest.
One would have to have never tied a shoe, prepared a meal, or completed any task requiring a process to not recognize a factory for what it is. At the very least the observer should be able to recognize the industrial process as being similar to other processes with which he is already familiar: the kind when going step-by-step makes a thing. Therefore, to observe a factory in operation and then declare that the factory, even the whole process of manufacturing, including subcontracting and logistics, is nothing more than an illusion of design and a product of chance is to throw out rationality in favor of a presumed belief.
It amazes me how that one can learn more and more about the complexities (yes, even irreducible complexities) of the human cell and still maintain random chance and time created and honed everything, from the machines down to the software in a factory which purpose is to make a thing.
It is easy to simply claim there is no Designer or Creator behind the unfathomable complexities of human existence. All one needs is the presupposition that no matter what one encounters, it is NOT what it may appear to be. If we first presuppose there is no God, then what may appear to be the result of vision and design can be waved off as only an illusion, a false equation, or the projection of a preconceived delusion acting as a coping mechanism.
However, living in a modern, industrial world, I find it hard to understand how anyone with any amount of intelligence can maintain “natural selection,” copious amounts of time, and blind chance are the architects of anything, much less the preliminary mechanisms and processes which bring about its construction.
I actually work in an automobile manufacturing plant. I have witnessed the entire process of building a Volkswagen Atlas. Even more, I have participated with my own hands in the making of these vehicles. I have been involved in the logistics of securing parts of all kinds and placing even the smallest in precise positions for robots to weld. In order for one functioning vehicle to roll off the assembly line, the things that must take place in the right way at the right moment and in the right amount are just staggering. And we are only talking about a car, not the human body and each cell!
2025 Volkswagen Atlas Peak Edition 
For just a moment, think about that 2025 VW Atlas with all the bells and whistles of a luxury SUV. Imagine it painted your favorite color as it is cranked and driven out the big bay doors toward the staging area where it will be shipped. Should you spend your $50,000 to buy one, you will expect it to perform at a certain level while maintaining its structural integrity. After all, the lives of your family and yourself will depend on it.
Now, imagine that SUV backing into the proving and detailing area once again. Then, imagine it backing up to the automated assembly line where it is once again placed on the moving floor. Keep reversing until the vehicle is completely disassembled, stripped of paint and sealer, even un-welded (if that was possible) and reduced to small stamped pieces of sheet metal that make up the body. Are we done? No.
Credit: plastonline.org
Look around at all the bins full of sheet metal parts, plastic spacers, barrels of sealant, bolts, nuts, and even the box of tiny copper tips for one of the thousand-plus $200,000-dollar robots spot-welding 24/7 according to software monitored 4,000 miles away. How did all that get there? If left alone, would a VW Atlas once again roll out the door? Even in a billion years?
Even more, consider all the things that must take place in the process of manufacturing the individual components. For every piece of that vehicle (about 5,000) there is a company, a business plan, a CEO, workers, machines that must be maintained, and materials which must be ordered and stocked. And then there are the truck drivers and the forklift drivers and the mechanics who keep those machines running and those parts on schedule.
Parts must be made according to specific tolerances. Parts must be assembled in a certain way. People have to do their assigned duties with quality, safety, and integrity. Everything must go a certain way, or else the very integrity of the vehicle could be compromised. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING is unplanned and left to chance when literal lives could be at stake.
How long would it take for a brand new Volkswagen to roll off the assembly line on its own? Any answer other than “never” would be absurd. And why is that? Because nothing in the observable world testifies to this being possible. From experience and observation we have acquired enough wisdom to determine two things: first, a car doesn’t design and build itself; and second, an expertly built and functioning vehicle must not be the result of design-less, random chance.
Therefore, it is not irrational, when we observe what appears to be design and purpose, to assume there was a Designer with a plan for how the thing would function. Everywhere else in creation and everyday life we observe the natural rhythms of cause and effect. When we see a jet flying in the sky above us, we take for granted the craft was designed and built in a factory, it’s going somewhere, and that people are on it. Even when a rock hits our windshield, we know something caused the rock to leave the pavement.
It’s only the one who cannot, no matter the evidence, no matter the logic, accept that there’s a Watchmaker in the history of the watch on the shore. He asserts there is no evidence for the Watchmaker; there is nothing about the Watchmaker that he’d like should he exist; that not enough jewels were in the movement to signal true intelligence; and that though it may look like a watch and function like a watch, we don’t know for sure what we think a watch is, or whether it is actually represented in the thing on the shore.
For all we know, the supposed watch somehow came from the depths by some means not yet discovered.
“All we can know for sure,” he would say, “is that there appears to be a thing on the shore with interesting similarities to other observable things, but whatever it is, it is because it is and that’s it. To entertain any other conclusions might lead to inconvenient truths, and we can’t go there.”
All I know is that even though I’m not a biologist, I’m pretty certain I can recognize a duck when I see it.
As I begin to write this, I am looking up to where it says, “Add title.” But I’m not sure what it should be. I am going to have to wait till I write a little more, I guess.
Two things have brought me back to the old keyboard: my new friend’s question and my questioning of what’s next.
My New Friend’s Question
If you read my last post, you’ll know who I’m talking about. There’s a sharp young man where I work with whom I’ve had some conversations. It was he who, while standing beside me in the “micro market,” asked, “Are you OK?”
Now, it doesn’t happen very often, as you probably well know – someone actually asking if you’re OK. I mean, it’s totally common to have people casually ask how you’re doing and not really expect an honest answer. And they shouldn’t expect it, either.
You and I do the same thing, don’t we? In passing, like an amplified “hello,” we ask, “How’re you?” without really wanting to receive a detailed response. All we expect is an obligatory, “I’m fine, how are you?” To which we always intend to say, “Fine.”
But this morning was a little different. My new friend asked if I was OK. He actually wanted to know! How strange! In a place with 5,000 people on any given day just trying to make it through their shift, here you have a guy who actually cared! So how did I respond?
Well, I don’t remember my exact words (his were more memorable), but I said something like, “I’m not that great.”
That’s when he told me he had noticed my lack of on-line activity (writing here, that is). So, here I am.
Questioning What’s Next
That brings me to the second of the two reasons I am writing this: I don’t know what’s next!
Here’s the thing, folks… I’m worn out. I’m tired. Primarily physically, but also emotionally. Everything from my new job (the main reason) to uncontrollable events, all have drained me so much that I have nothing to squeeze out. It’s literally taking reserve energy to type this.
If you want to know how bad things are, consider this: I am probably (90% sure) going to back away from the whole watch thing. Why? Well, for several reasons:
I’m too tired to make videos. It would help to have a dedicated, undisturbed studio, but I don’t, and everything has to be set up fresh each time I record. Then comes all the editing.
It takes time and money, neither of which I have much extra.
Even though I enjoy new watches, my last new one sucked the wind out of my sails when it exposed that I really didn’t want what I thought I wanted as the ultimate watch.
The economic suffering my friends in Pakistan are enduring made thinking of a luxury watch feel sickening.
So, if not watches, what? Back to painting? I wish – and hope! But again, with no dedicated place to set things up and leave them, it takes too much energy out of me to even get started.
And then there’s that whole “energy” thing. Did I mention that I worn out, tired, exhausted?
I don’t even want to study, which is the most tragic thing of all. Even though I have the opportunity to schedule speaking engagements, the thought of picking up a phone tires me, not to mention the mental fatigue that accompanies preparation.
Lastly, because this is already too long, I’m spiritually drained and feel like I can’t refill. My faith is under attack from several fronts and the battles are taking their toll. I’m not losing my faith, per say, but I do find myself wondering if I’m fighting the right battles.
If I could get more sleep, I would. But that’s a subject of its own.
But I’ll tell you this, at least some dadgum Volkswagen Atlas SUVs are getting built!
Here is the latest from my YouTube channel, The Humble Horologist.
If you haven’t yet subscribed to that channel, then hurry and do so, then leave a comment in the form of a question to an Authorized Dealers (of watch brands). These questions will be put to use in a series of interviews with ADs.
The Recovering Legalist 