SILLY MEDITATION

I have just been thinking (not necessarily a dangerous process, but. . . ) I just watched a television commercial, I think by Chrysler, which advertises a lifetime power train warranty on an automobile, and it made me think. I used to sell low heat, stainless steel cookware made by Reynolds Metals called Lifetime Stainless Steel Cookware. It was good stuff and quite expensive but it offered a lifetime guarantee. One of the examples given (and it was true, I checked it out) was someone whose house burned down and they found, in the wreckage a set of Lifetime Stainless, encrusted in ash with the bakelite handles turned into crispy critters. The set was returned to Reynolds and they polished it up, replaced the handles, and it was as "good as new". I was impressed.

Reynolds Metals, alias Reynolds Aluminum has been through ownership changes, alliances with other industries etc. I wonder if the lifetime guarantee still would even be remembered, let alone honored. Whose lifetime does a lifetime guarantee include? The original purchaser? The piece of equipment, the company ? (Remember the Ginsu Knife ads on TV with the lifetime guarantee. Does Ginsu Knife company even exist?) One of my friends used to kid me when I was schlepping cookware that the lifetime guarantee applied to the life of the implement. When when the pot or pan died, the guarantee was void.

On this basis, Coppertop batteries could be given a lifetime guarantee. When the battery dies, the guarantee expires. On the other hand, it might be for the life of the original owner. That seems more practical than the life of the company. Can you imagine going to a used car lot for a 2008 Chrysler (in 2115) and having the salesman chanting "It is still under warranty." Or it might be for the life of the company but how many companies were major companies twenty years ago that don't even exist today, or if they do exist they are like Kraft Foods (a minor division of a tobacco company). Of course we still try to trust the concept that the guarantee is for the life of the company, in which case, who would like to bet 20,000 dollars that Chrysler will still be around in twenty years, let alone for the full lifetime of one of our younger readers. I have family that invested in Geneva Steel, one of the great companies of America, only to see the company disappear completely in a very few years.

We live in a world where guaranties and warrantees are given freely, but are always open to questions and interpretations. What happens to the guaranteed pension plan when the company that offered it files Chapter Eleven Bankruptcy? Owning shares in a company has an implied guarantee that as long as the company exists, your ownership is valid. Tell that to the thousands of shareholders in Kmart who saw their ownership dissolve in Chapter Eleven. When the company became a part of Sears, how much of Sears do the old shareholder have?

We are so dependent on our trust of others but the word of others is so fragile. The only real guarantee or warranty that we can depend on is the one that we give to ourselves. Those of us who are people of faith also depend on the warranty or guarantee of a loving Father in Heaven or the Atoning Grace of Jesus Christ, but our world is filled with many who will accept the warranty from Chrysler, but who feel that those of use who accept spiritual warrantees are nuts or gullible.

Countries make promises, some of which are kept and some which are not. Governments do the same. Our friends do the same. Companies do the same. I wonder why I feel so absolutely trusting in the promises made in scripture. Certainly I have blog friends who think I am one of the most gullible.

In the words of a character in a play I directed many years ago, "It's a puzzlement."