Those who can't

 There's a well known phrase - those who can't, teach. It's sometimes (often?) said with derision - oh, you're not good enough to act, sing, write, defend a client, play the game. - you've got the knowledge, but not the real skill.

It goes along with the image of the lone super hero; the brave warrior heading off to battle; the head chef or Ceo running his little empire with flair and bad manners. The elite. The special.

But there is also another phrase - they also serve, who sit and wait. 

Do you know how many support people there are? For a movie? Well, they are listed in the credits. What about for a game? For a military maneuver? For a caped crusader? For a favorite restaurant or priest or lawyer or animal whisperer? 

Let's talk about a sports game. Not only are there the players on the team and on the bench and in the wings on reserve, there's the coaches. Pretty well known. There's the "trainers" - the medical team. And there's the water people and assistants and towel fetchers. Oh and the people who care for the field, both during the season (before and after a game) and when there are no games in session. There's the vendors and the ushers. There's the janitors and the security. There's ALSO the admin people - who exchange the tickets for the money, who communicate with the fans or with the team. There's the organizers and the bill collectors and the bills payers and the payroll clerks. There's the people who deliver the equipment and drive the players. There's the people who install the lights of the facility and maintain them, and there's the people who keep them on. Oh, and what about the people who create the uniforms, the equipment, the paper? And the people who gather the materials that are needed for those creations?

And that's leaving out the vendors and the tv crews and sports casters.

And seriously - where would the good people of fake New York be if there wasn't a team of people willing to clean up after the big super hero montage? Who would Batman be without Alfred and the bat cave and all his technology which he did not personally create with his own two hands? 

And how would the soldiers defend us without the training and the tools? The medical people go to classes but there's also the equipment and the teams which clean up after them. And the printers and deliverers of the teaching material. And... 

Those who "can't", do teach. And support. And feed and listen and heal and clean up after and do all the invisible admin work that currently makes our social world go round.

Those who "can't", provide rooms, give money, give time, give encouragement.

Those who "can't", create homes and memories and a place to be someone other than the one who "Can".

So to those who "can't",  Thank you for everything you DO.