Give Me The Lamp!

There is a place far from the frozen factories of the miller valley, the hot coffee of Fuel Cafe and the cheap Pabst of corner bars. It is a place that shatters the american perception of fast food, destroys the concept of dirty burger joints and filthy taco stands. It is a place where hope is renewed, where joy start anew.

This place, this light tower in the storm of mediocrity, this haven of satisfaction. This place that defies odds, resurrects definitions of life and foils the uncertainty of the future is known in an entirely different way from place to place.

This place is the McDonald's in Santa Marta, Colombia.

Now in milwaukee, where I’m from, there are at least twenty McDonald’s restaurants. And though I eat at them from time to time, there is always a sort of attitude or shame that comes with supporting them. It’s like this for me and other people.

We all want an egg McMuffin every now and then, maybe a double cheeseburger and some chicken nuggets and the one thing that I believe that they do greatly, just greatly, french fries. But something, at least for young artist who believe in some sort of social conscience, stands in the way. There is a reason that we don’t eat McDonald’s every day and it isnt entirely because we don’t like the food or we feel it is unhealthy to do so. It is the shame.

People in America don’t respect McDonald’s, they don’t respect people who work at McDonald’s and in turn McDonald’s workers don’t respect their job.

Here is where you get dirty restaurant bathrooms, food being accidently knocked on the floor and served anyway, and messed up orders by disgruntled cashiers. A lack of respect leads to poor working conditions and a poor product.

In Colombia though, serving burger at McDonald’s is a job, maybe some people look down on it but they are in the vast minority instead of the majority.

It is so clean you could actually eat off the floor, they all wear matching McDonald’s pants and blue Chuck Taylor’s, and they have ranch dressing that comes out of a sauce dispenser. It’s like wandering into an ideal version of something you always knew. It’s like seeing the greatness and possibility that lies in mediocre things.

The food is fast and great, the people are nice, everything about a perfect business model is actually perfect.

Everything comes from respect, respect is a great infection that spreads around the world making us care about things we don’t care about, taking pride in things we don’t normally take pride in. Creating greatness where you’ve only known mediocrity before.