Monday Musings - Labor Day Edition...
Today is one of those holidays that might tend to confuse some folks.
It IS a day to fly our flag (so get out there and run it up, people), and it IS a federal holiday (government offices are closed), and usually spells the unofficial end to Summer.
But to those who do NOT have the day off (police, fire, doctors, nurses, etc.), there IS no real holiday for THEM.
It's "business as usual"...
In order to to get a better idea on the REAL meaning of LABOR DAY, we're going to take a look as to how OTHERS have viewed it over the years, both visually as well as by hearts and minds of the written word (and even song).
So buckle up, keep your hands and feet inside the car, and wait until this ride comes to a complete stop to exit.
*** First off, if you want to see (and hear) some good "working" songs, do yourselves a favor and drop on over to CWM's blog - Tilting at Windmills - link at left. Everything from Sam Cooke to Huey Lewis & the News to Disney's Snow White (there's a working song in there?). Yep. Just recall what those 7 dwarfs were up to before Snow White came by.
Next, the WIKI link for LABOR DAY, complete with the history and how we celebrate :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day
Yes, it's one of the few GOOD things the unions were mostly responsible for.
(which is a far cry from what they are responsible for TODAY).
*** Next up, the photos and words from times past and present that represent the nature of human labor, and why THAT is to be celebrated.

-- Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.
Abraham Lincoln

-- All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

-- A wise and frugal Government, which shall retrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.
Thomas Jefferson

-- The end of labor is to gain leisure.
Aristotle

-- Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
Confucius

-- It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.
Theodore Roosevelt

-- Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.
George Washington

-- There is no labor a person does that is undignified; if they do it right.
Bill Cosby

-- Labor gives birth to ideas.
Jim Rohn

-- To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy.
Bette Davis

-- A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.
Victor Hugo

-- Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.
Samuel Johnson

-- To be born woman is to know - although they do not speak of it at school - women must labor to be beautiful.
William Butler Yeats

-- If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains; if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

-- I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.
John D. Rockefeller

-- Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.
Booker T. Washington

-- Without labor nothing prospers. Sophocles

-- He who tampers with the currency robs labor of its bread.
Daniel Webster

-- A truly American sentiment recognizes the dignity of labor and the fact that honor lies in honest toil.
Grover Cleveland

-- America must be the moral leader. It is not enough to have power. Power must be used to protect freedom and give all people hope for the opportunity to see the fruit of their own labor.
Jesse Helms

-- Dignity does not float down from heaven it cannot be purchased nor manufactured. It is a reward reserved for those who labor with diligence.
Bill Hybels

-- A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.
Liberty Hyde Bailey

-- Undoubtedly a man is to labor to better his condition, but first to better himself. William Ellery Channing

-- He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.
Menander

-- Labor is the fabled magician's wand, the philosophers stone, and the cap of good fortune.
James Weldon Johnson

And there you have it friends...from the mouths of others to your ears.
Spend a few minutes and ponder those words...powerful words...words that exemplify a sense of dignity...of pride, and of accomplishment in both ourselves and in this nation.
We (America) CAN do it.
Do enjoy today's activities with friends, family or even alone in thought.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.