Blog

By Pennee Murphree, former cotton, wheat and alfalfa grower

Why do I even watch the news? One of the more recent news items was about the auction of a rhinestone-decorated, white glove Michael Jackson wore during one of his concerts. It went for $350,000 at auction. I was amazed.

What does it say about the things we value in our society today? I’d like to shout out about gloves that really matter. They are usually quite worn and often have a few holes in them. But they are definitely not white and they have no rhinestones on them.

The news item caused me to go to a drawer in my utility room and take a look at gloves with real value, worn by real people. Some were used to bale hay all night, at the time when every bale was handled and stacked on a trailer. Some were used to drive a tractor or hauled cotton to the gin. Why haven’t I thrown away a small glove that was worn by one of our four kids trimming pistachio trees? Even gloves I wore picking pecans and planting wheat. Wow, I forgot that.

Consider the glove worn by a dairyman feeding and caring for his cows, the rancher rounding up and branding cattle, the farm workers cleaning the ditch, irrigating the cotton and planting a new crop. I could go on and on but you get the picture. The hands in these gloves are the ones we should appreciate.

I’ll bet you have a pair of gloves in your house that tell a story. These gloves would not bring $350,000 to a collector and will not be on the news but I guarantee they have fed and clothed and cared for people. What’s more important?