Labor Day 2021

Take a day off

“Celebrate good times, come on!”

—Kool and the Gang

BUT WHAT if the times aren’t good? What if the times are nervously sinister and politically raw? What if a war is lost and American leadership looks inept? What if disease and climate threaten our kids and the old folks at home?

Then, by jingos, we look for a reason to celebrate. The Brits might have stiff upper lips, but Americans have better ideas. And have from the beginning. From before the beginning.

Times aren’t good? Nervously sinister and politically raw? Wars, disease, tough weather? You mean like in 1776? Lest we forget, Washington didn’t cross the Delaware until Christmas of that year, and before that few gave the Americans a chance. Generals were elbowing each other behind the scenes trying to get Washington’s job while he tried to hold back the Redcoats and a smallpox problem.

This country has faced hard times before this country was a country. Somehow we find a reason. A president named Lincoln decided to start a tradition of Thanksgiving holidays on Thursdays in November, back in 1863. We’d allow that this nation was fairly divided in 1863.

There’s no need for buffoonery today. But good barbecue and a ball game might be just what the doctor ordered. And a day off from those raw politics. Just one day.

Today is Labor Day, and some of us intend to make the most of it.

SOMEBODY once said that labor was not man’s punishment for having been tossed out of the Garden of Eden, but his consolation for having been.

Who doesn’t feel better after the lawn’s been mowed? Or after that last tomato plant has been planted in April? In the United States, unlike in the old world, labor isn’t a party, but an activity. We’re not forced to stay in one class all our lives, although we might do so, even choose to do so.

Although we might have put the beginnings of Labor Day very much in our past (“Eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, eight hours for what-you-please!”) the working spirit is still strong.

And by working spirit we don’t mean make-work, given for no reason other than as an excuse to keep the idle busy. Or perhaps keep them paid.

“Most men would feel insulted if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now.”— Henry David Thoreau

Then again, there is something unhealthy about a society that has no place for robust labor. Even if that labor is the kind that invents labor-saving devices. Some of the best American heroes weren’t the military types or the political class, but the inventors. How much labor they’ve saved us! We praise them on Labor Day, too.

BEING GOOD Americans, today we will celebrate labor … by taking the day off work. And what will we do on our day off work? Being good Americans, many of us will work. (“The business of America is business.” —Coolidge, C.)

Sure, only a few will actually go to jobs. Pilots have to fly, pharmacists have to pharmy. And emergency rooms won’t staff themselves. But most of us will celebrate this last bit of summer by washing the car, or emptying the gutters, or painting the deck, or changing the oil. Only then will we do the important stuff. Like cooking.

What’ll it be today, America? How about an all-around American meal like omelets for breakfast, pizza for lunch and stir-fry for supper? And let the kids make some finger foods like egg rolls and seven-layer Mexican dip to nibble on throughout the day. Talk about taking pleasure in labor! Make sure the kids save some for later.

In this, year two of a pandemic crisis, labor hasn’t disappeared, but much of it has moved. As long as business exists in the United States, it will need labor. Even if technology has allowed many people to work their jobs from home.

Thank God for that. Imagine the pandemic coming in, say, 1992, before many of us had computers at home. Or at least computers that could be connected to the Internet, and thus our employers. It would have been nigh impossible to socially distance at all.

But whenever Americans start feeling sorry for themselves—all these Zoom meetings!—we can look back at how things were, and how Labor evolved to something we celebrate today.

IN THIS YEAR of our American discontent, maybe we should look back at how things have changed so dramatically in this country since the early days of Labor. And know that things can get better from here, if Americans demand it.

We can demand social justice—because we have before. We can demand fairness—because we have before. And we can demand that once this virus is licked, and it will be, we can all get back to normal work.

For all of our teasings about Monday mornings, Americans yearn to get back to normal work. We ache for it. And not only for a paycheck (most of those are still coming), but also because creating, making, manufacturing, constructing— producing—has so many other rewards.

Which is why so many will prepare the fall garden today. Not to celebrate a holiday, but for exhilaration and health. And for broccoli and cauliflower.

Somebody said that Americans would be smart to prepare Zoom meetings for Thanksgiving. The hell we will. We can celebrate our very American holidays even in 2021 by being smart and helpful—but celebrate we will. We’ll figure out a way. Americans always have.

Happy Labor Day.