International Farmall<\/a> to tend a mere garden.<\/p>\nOne day when I was either particularly brave or particularly tired, I asked my father \u201cwhy do I have to do farm work?\u201d\u00a0 I still remember his answer: \u201cI\u2019m trying to teach you responsibility.\u201d\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see how what I considered slave labor had anything to do with responsibility, but I had sense enough not to push it.\u00a0 In total my father was a good guy, but he grew up in the Great Depression in a poor family with eight children and he had little patience with a nerdy kid who wanted to be indoors reading instead of outdoors being a productive worker.<\/p>\n
All that farm work did teach me one thing \u2013 I learned I wanted no part of manual labor.\u00a0 Any time school got tough \u2013 particularly the first quarter of my junior year in college when I wanted to drop out \u2013 I remembered working outside in the heat and humidity and I went back to studying.<\/p>\n
Unlike some Pagans, I have no romantic ideas about living off the land.\u00a0 The Earth does not give up her bounty with ease.\u00a0 Crops require plowing, planting, watering, weeding, guarding, harvesting and preserving.\u00a0 Animals require feeding, watering, and general care \u2013 every day.\u00a0 Sometimes twice a day.<\/p>\n
Somebody has to do that work \u2013 somebody has to grow the food.\u00a0 Maybe you do it for yourself and more likely you pay someone to do it for you, but somebody has to do it.<\/p>\n
And if you\u2019re going to pay someone to grow your food for you \u2013 and make your clothes and build your car and produce all the other things you consume \u2013 you\u2019re going to have to have some way to make a living.<\/p>\n
This is the necessity of work:\u00a0 there are things that have to be done and someone has to do them.\u00a0 And you have to make a living for yourself and those who are counting on you.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t a particularly popular idea these days, but it is a very pagan (lowercase intentional) idea.\u00a0 Our ancient ancestors understood there were things that simply had to be done.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to like them \u2013 you just have to do them.<\/p>\n
Today we hear advice like \u201cfollow your bliss\u201d and \u201cdo something you love and you\u2019ll never work a day in your life.\u201d\u00a0 There is the strong idea in our society that we should all have jobs that are interesting and fulfilling and fun.\u00a0 They should be safe and secure, always challenging but never demanding.<\/p>\n
I used to work with a man whose dream was to fly helicopters.\u00a0 He joined the Army out of high school, got into the right training programs, studied hard, worked hard, and qualified to fly Black Hawk helicopters.\u00a0 He had been flying for two years when his father had a heart attack and died.\u00a0 He was given a hardship discharge and went home to run the family butcher shop.\u00a0 Follow your bliss?\u00a0 He did what he had to do.<\/p>\n
Most of us do what we have to do.\u00a0 We need to eat, we need a place to live, we have children, spouses, and parents depending on us to provide for them.\u00a0 There are things we want and things we want to do that don\u2019t come free.<\/p>\n
And so we work.\u00a0 Perhaps we can find a way to make a living doing what we love.\u00a0 Many of us prepare for a career with college and internships and then hope we can find a paying job in our chosen field.\u00a0 Sometimes we end up taking the best of a limited set of options.\u00a0 If we\u2019re successful we not only do what we have to do, we make it possible to do what we\u2019re called to do<\/a>.<\/p>\nI like to think I now have a mature relationship with work.\u00a0 If I hit the lottery today I would turn in my notice tomorrow, but I know that\u2019s unlikely \u2013 particularly since I haven\u2019t bought a ticket in ten years.\u00a0 I have a job that\u2019s a good match with my skills.\u00a0 It can be stressful at times, but most days the expectations are reasonable.\u00a0 I\u2019ll never get rich, but it pays enough.\u00a0 And it\u2019s all indoors.\u00a0 I am thankful for it.<\/p>\n
And I am thankful for those who do the jobs that are dirty, stressful, unpleasant, dangerous and tiring\u2026 but necessary.\u00a0 May we remember to honor those who do what must be done.<\/p>\n
Happy Labor Day.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To say I have a complicated relationship with work would be an understatement.\u00a0 The picture to the right is a scan of a Peanuts card I bought in the 3rd grade.\u00a0 It is \u2013 I think \u2013 the oldest of the few childhood mementos I have kept.\u00a0 At that point in my life \u2013 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[159,4,5,158],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-labor-day","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-work"],"yoast_head":"\n
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