Common “Cents”

“A penny for your thoughts.”

“A penny saved is a penny earned.”

“Pinching pennies.”

“Take care of the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves.”

“Cost a pretty penny.”

“Don’t have a penny to my name”

“Turn up like a bad penny”

“Worth every penny”

Pennies are funny. We despise them and often cast them off when given as change, but the proverbs above call attention to the fact that pennies are an enduring, unchanging (maybe I should say “unchangeable” …it is the lowest denomination) part of America. I think the same thing can be said of the citizens of this great country. Enduring in that democracy lives on, unchanging in that it should continue. Like pennies, some citizens are coarse and gritty, while others are shiny. Just remember one thing – monetarily, they are both worth $0.01. One cent. One one-hundredth of a dollar. One-ten thousandth of a c-note*.

Think about that.

Ten thousand sounds like a lot, but how many pennies have you seen in your life? Held in your hand? Thrown in a change jar? Thrown in the trash?

Point is, they start to add up. I put it to you, fellow citizen, that we the people are those pennies. By ourselves, we have minuscule value, but a small community of voters becomes $1. Several communities together become $5. That conglomerate of communities becomes an area worth $10. The conglomerates conglomerate to form a conglomerated conglomerate of smaller conglomerates worth say, $16.83. The orgy of conglomeration continues, encompassing cities at values from a few hundred bucks to roughly $155,171.23 if you’re New York City.

If you’re not yet convinced of your value, think about this – if you’re jonesing for a chocolate fix, but are forced scrounge for change and can only find pennies, that is still legal tender – that will get you the chocolate. Just think, there was a penny in some lonely, dark place, but now it’s the joy joy deliciousness of chocolate. So I ask you, do you want to experience joy joy deliciousness or stay lonely in the dark?

Here is the penny origin story in a talk with the Democrat running for Texas House in district 62, Valerie Hefner –

*Fun fact – It takes between 145 and 181 pennies to make a pound. Let’s average that and say 163 pennies come out to one pound. Thus, a $100 bill saves you the trouble of hauling around nearly 62lbs of pennies.