Labor, not like birthing a child, but like punching the time-clock labor.

This has been Labor Day.

The purpose of it, is to celebrate the 160 million Americans who are in the workforce. The Labor Force. That is the current number who are either employed, or unemployed. http://www.dlt.ri.gov/lmi/laus/us/usadj.htm.

Honestly, if I were doling out Holidays, this wouldn’t be one of the big ones. I really think Labor Day is more about getting the 3-day weekend, truth be told. It was Grover Cleveland who made it a National Holiday, for goodness sakes. Cleveland.

I mean, working is just working. It is a part of life. Whether we get paid for it or not, there is work to be done in every aspect of our lives. It should be second nature to us. It is an activity involving mental or physical effort. It is done in order to achieve a purpose or result. I think a lot of people are losing, or never had, a good work ethic. But, that is a different topic all together.

This, has been Labor Day.

Again, it is a lame holiday, in my estimation. We don’t really celebrate it. At least, no one I know. At Christmas time, say, we all gather round and sing Christmas carols, we eat Christmas cookies, and give each other gifts. There is a big to-do for weeks in advance. We hang mistletoe, and tell Christmas stories.

Easter, the same. We chase the Chicken-Rabbit, eat Pigs and Potatoes, and hunt for hard-boiled rainbow eggs. I could run off all the details of all the other Holidays, but you get my drift. We do things to celebrate the theme.

Not Labor Day. Sure, there are cookouts and swim parties, or golf outings. But that is all more about putting Summer to sleep. We don’t sit around the table with a bunch of Dirty Martinis and toast one another about our jobs.

“Here’s to Bob. He is the best damn Frito-Lay delivery man I’ve ever met. To Bob.” (… and everyone raises their glass and cheers.. …. .. “To BOB.”). And then you go around the table, toasting all the good workers, like Alice, the Dunkin’ Donut Lady. And such. Jack, the Dry Cleaning Guy.

No, they need to yank this holiday, just like Columbus Day. Misnomers. Go on home folks, there’s nothing to see here.

Labor Day is really, truly, End of Summer Days. Even though the Fall Equinox will not occur for 21 more days, the Summer is taking a bow. The pools will be closing. Kids have gone back to school. The ice cream trucks have all flown South for the winter. The Reruns have ended.

Summer, that grand gift of Summer, is checking out. The green will be gone, and we’ll miss it. Sure, Fall will be majestic in her colorful spread, but then comes the gray. The long, cold, gray. So. Labor Day, for me, is a day of mourning.

I still think we should change this Holiday. If people still feel the need to celebrate the “working” part of their lives, perhaps we could amend the day, since work is just one facet of our lives. Perhaps we could change it to “Be a Good and Kind Person Day.” Or. “Be the Best YOU Day.”

And then, like Christmas, we would theoretically carry that message with us all the year around.

And, we’d still get the 3-day weekend.

Either way. It’s been Labor Day this year. And now Summer has left the Seasons.

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“Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.”
― Gustave Flaubert

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“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”
― Leo Tolstoy

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“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it”
― Buddha

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