Today a colleague that has been with the company for 13+ years was reminiscing about some of our old customers, Goodyear Tire, Ford, and Kodak. He said the most interesting visit he had was when he went to Peabody, Massachusetts to the Kodak factory. When he got there he was in shock. They were burning cow bones to make their camera film. So as he is telling me the story I guess my jaw dropped or my eyes popped out because he stopped in the middle of a sentence. He said that wasn't even the best part, in 1999 the company bought over 80 million pounds of cow bones for their film production. Who knew Kodak had so many skeletons in its closet?
At first I was actually amused and maybe a little skeptical. Then it crossed my mind that with the new digital era, maybe the "animal sacrifices" were no longer necessary. I should have stopped and filed it away as an interesting story, but my curiosity got the best of me. Upon further investigation I now know that cow bones are apparently a frequently used, black market traded, highly sought after product on the market. Call me naive, but I honestly had no idea that cow bones are in Jell-o, Marshmellows, many different kinds of candy, and gummy bears.
I guess I grew up naive and sheltered, but part of me likes that. I feel sad when I see kids who have experienced too much too young. I'm just learning myself what the real world is like, and I am glad I could wait this long before I had to deal with reality. I can agree with Tobey Maguire when he said, "I might have some character traits that some might see as innocence or naive.
That's because I discovered peace and happiness in my soul. And with this knowledge, I also see the beauty of human life." Perhaps this is a weakness that I have, or perhaps it gives me an advantage over others. Two years at this company so far and my knowledge has expanded ten fold. How exciting and yet scary it is to think of where my mind could be ten years from now!
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