Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Leisure: Happy Labour Day

What happened last week in Nouvelle Orléans was a severe tragedy. My sympathies to the victims of the tragedy, and I salute the efforts of the professionals and volunteers who have been working to help those affected. If you wish to help, you can do so here or here. Now, as for this week's entry:

The Labour Day weekend traditionally marks the unofficial end of summer. School starts up, as do many activities that were suspended over the summer. In an odd way, it's as if the Long Weekend is a kind of demarcation point between the time for vacation, and the time for work, which ties into the origins of Labour Day in a roundabout way.

Labour Day is a day to recognise the struggles of the Labour movement, the gains that have been made, and the challenges still ahead, and these are important issues. Despite the crap that comprises the best-selling career advice books, many, if not most people, dislike their jobs. For them, work is necessary in order to eat. Yet, people also have other interests. These interests include such things as family, recreation, hobbies, education, community involvement, and vacations, and they are very important. However, pursuing interests outside of work can be difficult in this day and age. Many people work 2 jobs in order to survive, and we are now working longer. This not only reduces the time for off-work activities, but increases our stress levels.

Much of it indicates a change in mentality. Going back to what I said about Labour Day being a demarcation point, that springs from a mentality that there is a time to work and a time not to. The traditional full-time job leaves you free in the evenings, weekends, and holidays to do as you wish, and our culture once respected that. Today, everything revolves around convenience; the so-what-if-it's-2-am-you-get-that-product-delivered-to-me-by-8-am mentality. We feel we have a divine right to have all of our desires gratified this instant, and get angry when we find that the stores are opened limited hours (if at all) on holidays. What effect does that have on the people who have to work to bring us what we want, not to mention our own health levels? I accept that emergencys creep up at all times of the day and must be dealt with promptly, but why does it seem that nothing can wait until Monday morning after the weekend to be dealt with? Are we that impatient?

We had to fight for such things as weekends and vacations, where we can just relax and enjoy oursleves with the people we love, and it's important not to take that for granted. With that in mind, Happy Labour Day!