Non-Labor Day

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fairness, Labor Day, pandemic, responsibility, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, workers

I have often thought that the holiday we celebrate today is named incorrectly because it sounds like just the opposite of what the intention is. The truth is that this holiday truly was initiated to protest unfair and unsafe working conditions for adults and even young children toward the end of the 1800s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution. There were many violent events in different cities that led to the idea of a “workingmen’s holiday” until Congress passed an act making Labor Day a law, signed by President Grover Cleveland on June 28, 1894.

Many of us have memories of history lessons in high school where names and terms like Eugene Debs, the Pullman Railway strike, or the Haymarket Riot of 1886 strike a chord. The story is often not as clear as the title, however, and the struggle for fairness practices overlooked as we eat our picnic foods and celebrate the end of the summer vacation season.

This year is different. There should be no large gatherings in parks or on beaches. We cannot celebrate in the same way because businesses are closing down and many more people find themselves unemployed by the day. The situation will not change until the virus which is ravaging the world is conquered. That will not happen until all people come to understand that we are each responsible for the health of all of us. Our “work” now is to care enough for the whole to discipline ourselves, to follow the instructions set out by health officials while waiting for a vaccine to be conceived and approved to end the pandemic.

My prayer for this day is that we will all come to recognize that this “work” is necessarily shared by all of us and it will be a united effort or we will fail. I am reminded of a song. We know it. It goes like this:

What the world needs now is love, sweet love. That’s the only thing that there’s just too little of…

Labor Day Weekend

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breath, Holiday, Labor Day, restful, safe, school, summer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wellbeing

It’s shockingly late as I turn to this task today (9:28AM in the Eastern part of the country). There is a gentle rain falling and quiet all around. It must be that something in me has already leaned in to a consciousness of Labor Day weekend. It seems illogical to call it the end of summer, since date-wise and temperature-wise we are far from finished with what we define as the summer season. It is, however, the moment when the school calendar resumes and takes precedence over every other way of marking the passage of time. With school back in session for youth of every age, we all fall into step with the round of activities that qualify as “work” – or labor, to be exact. So we should call this coming Monday NON-Labor Day and recognize the need for taking a breath in the work-a-day world, giving thanks for all those workers who contribute to our wellbeing.

May we all have a safe and restful weekend, and if we are the necessary workers who offer others the opportunity to celebrate this holiday, may we receive the gratitude of those we serve and know inner peace in our generosity.

 

 

 

 

 

Labor Day

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Adam, connectedness, creation, Genesis, God, human, Joan Chittister, just, Labor Day, labor movement, meaningful work, minimum wage, privilege, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, work, worker

I often think that “Labor Day” must be a confusing holiday for people who are not native to our country or anywhere else that it is celebrated at some point in the year. Some of us have taken to calling it “Non-labor Day” since it is, after all, a day when everyone but essential workers stay home or go on picnics or celebrate in other such ways a “day off” from work.

In the United States, Labor Day is always the first Monday in September. It is, the internet says, a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of our country. It became a federal holiday in 1894.

The ideal of “a good day’s work for a good day’s pay” has become rather skewed in many quarters in our country as we see inequity in many places where CEOs of big companies are paid exorbitant salaries while people like health aides are paid little more than minimum wage for their caring service to the sick and elderly members of our society. We need to work continually for just wages in every sphere and celebrate new initiatives where we see young executives sharing their wealth with their employees and many of the richest people establishing foundations with specific projects that seek the betterment of our world.

I took a look at Joan Chittister’s chapter entitled “Work: Participation in Creation” in her book, Wisdom Distilled From the Daily, just to get another, maybe more spiritual, perspective on the topic. Here are some tidbits that might be helpful as we attempt to balance our view on things.

Work in the monastic tradition is not something to be avoided. Work is not a punishment or a penance. Work is a privilege.

In monastic spirituality…work is not a private enterprise. Work is not to enable me to get ahead; the purpose of work is to enable me to get more human and to make my world more just. (I like that one!)

Genesis is very clear on the subject. “Then God took Adam,” Scripture says, “and put him in the garden to cultivate and care for it.” (GEN. 2:15). Adam was put in the garden to till it and to keep it, not to contemplate it; not to live off of it; not to lounge. Even in an ideal world, it seems, God expected us to participate in the co-creation of the world.

So here’s to those who provide meaningful work and good environments for their workers! Here’s to those who give of themselves for the good of society and their own growth and well-being! And here’s to those whose work is for justice for all, especially the under-served among us. May we all come to understand the connectedness that we share in the building up of the world, God’s sacred creation.

 

 

 

 

 

The Real Work

Tags

active work, Christian life, contemplative, create our destiny, great work of mankind, Kathleen Deignan, Labor Day, Love and Living, nature, struggle, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours

I’ve often been in conversations where the topic is the naming of this holiday. Some of us think it should be called “Non-labor Day” since mostly all workers who are not absolutely necessary (like hospital emergency room personnel) are usually free of going to work today. With this in mind I turned to Thomas Merton who actually has a fair number of thoughts on the subject of work. I came upon a paragraph in which he looks at work in a different, more elevated way. I thought it a good sharing for today and with it I pray my hopes for a safe and restful, rejuvenating day for everyone, working or not.

(We must forgive the “exclusive language” in the paragraph below since Merton lived when “man” was still understood universally as meaning all of “humankind.”)

All Christian life is meant to be at the same time profoundly contemplative and rich in active work. It is true that we are called to create a better world. But we are first of all called to a more immediate and exalted task: that of creating our own lives. In doing this, we act as co-workers with God. We take our place in the great work of mankind, since in effect the creation of our own destiny, in God, is impossible in pure isolation. Each one of us works out his own destiny in inseparable union with all those others with whom God has willed us to live. We share with one another the creative work of living in the world. And it is through our struggle with material reality, with nature, that we help one another create at the same time our own destiny and a new world for our descendants.  (Love and Living, p. 159 – quoted in Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours, edited by Kathleen Deignan)