After seeing the slogan \u201cWhat Would Jesus Drive?\u201d I got into a humorous discussion once about which cars which Gods and ancients would drive. Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom, would drive a Kia Sephia. Odysseus would drive a minivan. Freyja would tool around in a Mercury Cougar. And Hephaistos? He would drive something handbuilt and custom modified. Maybe a Panoz roadster.<\/p>\n
I tend to associate Hephaistos with cars a lot in my own mind. Maybe because mechanics are the closest things to blacksmiths today, or maybe because I\u2019m a Union Baby, born UAW. Hephaistos and his hammer are the symbol of a lot of unions, and for good reason. He represents physical labor, working with your hands and being skilled at a trade. Today we tend to view such work as undesirable, but this was not always so. Getting a good factory job used to be a mark of pride in the US, and before that getting your child apprenticed to a craftsman was better than an MBA.<\/p>\n
So this labor day weekend I thank the Labor Movement for giving me the 40 hour work week. For inventing the weekend. For giving me health benefits, leave benefits and all kinds of safety guarantees that I get because unions fought for them first. Here\u2019s to the people who work with their hands, who learn skilled trades that have palpable, concrete results. Here\u2019s to the people who fought and died in the labor movement, who said children belong in schools instead of mills, and to the women of the mills in Lowell who said their employer had no right over their bodies and souls.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s to the labor we all do: the washing, the ironing, the sweeping, the mopping, the weeding, the cooking, and the childcare. Here\u2019s to the poets who sing of labor:<\/p>\n
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Have a great Labor Day Weekend!<\/p>\n
\nThose of mechanics, each one singing his as it whould be blithe and strong,
\nThe carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
\nThe mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
\nThe boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
\nThe shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
\nThe woodcutter\u2019s song, the ploughboy\u2019s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
\nThe delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
\nEach singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
\nThe day what belongs to the day\u2013at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
\nSinging with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
\n\u2014 Walt Whitman<\/strong><\/p>\n