Nourish Your Life

It is Labor Day!  I have often wondered why we don’t call it Not-Labor Day, as so many of us take the day off.  It does, of course, mean that we honor “labor” on this day…

Often, I have quoted Phil Humbert, as his posts so often replicate my thoughts; and please allow me to do this again regarding Labor Day:

Your Chance to Partner with God

“Work has a bad name, and that’s a shame.

Obviously, some “work” is just boring, undignified or dangerous, and that’s to be avoided at all costs. In my personal dictionary, however, I don’t really count that as “work.” Drudgery is just drudgery and while we all have to do some things we dislike, it’s mainly to be avoided. In a world of freedom and infinite opportunity, why spend your life being a slave?

True work, on the other hand, is one of life’s great privileges. I’ve often written that work is our chance to partner with God and continue the process of creation. According to the ancient story, God created the world in six days but didn’t finish all the details.

He left the details for us, and I count that a great honor.

Obviously, TIPS subscribers belong to a myriad of religions, and many of you opt for no religious faith, and that’s fine. Please substitute whatever terminology you prefer, but somewhere, somehow, the laws of nature were left for us to discover and use. I like to think we’re each building something worthy of ourselves!

Every day, through our work, we get to invent and build and combine resources to create a world that our grandparents could not imagine.

Through “work” the Panama Canal was built. Through “work” the Mona Lisa was created. Through “work’ we have computers, aircraft, and the internet. Because lots of people went to work, we have modern medicine, and I count these as good things!

There is tremendous dignity in human effort.

My grandfather often said that during his childhood and early adult years, it was unusual to eat anything that was grown more than twenty miles from where he lived. He recalled the joy of getting a single orange (”All the way from Florida!”) as a Christmas present! The next time you visit a grocery store, think about that. As you look at the aisles full of food from around the world, note that it all arrived on the back of human effort and engineering.

I’m not sure how many countries around the world have a “Labor Day” celebration, but I think they all should. Work is an amazing thing. It’s what makes us human, and allows us to create our world, and modify it to suit our preferences.

Do we sometimes mess up? Of course we do! Do we sometimes build or do things that have unintended consequences? Well, like Duh! Sometimes human beings work for evil or unfortunate ends, and that’s tragic, but it doesn’t change the fundamental truth. Work is the cost of freedom and dignity.

Most Americans will spend this holiday weekend escaping from work. We’ll play and laugh, relax with friends, do almost anything except “work.” But I hope you’ll also take a moment over the weekend to give thanks for the work you do. Your creative work makes a contribution to this small planet. In some small way, each of us contributes our energy, our talent, our skill to making life better, and I suspect that’s how God intended it.

Here’s to the joy and dignity of honest, hard work!”

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