Only labor's gonna give you something. - The Crazy Iris
When I was in graduate school, one of my professors told us that his class would not be held on Labor Day, although the university did, and apparently still does schedule classes for that day, because it was the only holiday he had any respect for. (His respect for Labor Day was no doubt connected to his membership in the Communist Party.)
Although I did not share his political affiliations, I did share the sentiment. Look around you. Everything you see was made by someone (or by a machine built and run by a someone). The apartment or house you live in, the furniture you sit on, the stove you cook on, the sidewalk you stroll down, the car you drive in, etc. - all products of human labor.
This labor extends, of course, to the signs that guide you, the printed materials and websites that inform you, as well as the advertisements and packaging that beguile you - for design and the realization of that design too involve labor, work, making. Ultimately, it is because I admire, respect, and, in my best moments, count myself among people who make things, that I have a special regard for a day devoted to celebrating workers and their work.
Oddly enough, although Labor Day is about as secular as holidays get, I believe that there is something almost spiritual in the sentiment enshrined in it. To see what I mean, we need look no farther than the words used by Peter J. McGuire when he first suggested the establishment of a day dedicated to honoring those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."
What he's talking about here is the mythical act par excellence: creation. Just as most myths concern themselves with the origins of things, Labor Day asks that we pause and reflect on the "originary made-ness" of the world in which we dwell and to give humble thanks to the effort, skill, and sacrifices demanded by such making.
Accordingly, on this day after Labor Day, I re-dedicate this blog to you, the creators. We may question the ultimate value or purpose of the many created things that surround us, that speak to us from the supermarket shelf and call to us from the vast reaches of the world-wide web, but we should not question for one second the patience, thought, and talent required to "delve and carve them from rude nature."
Workers of the world, I salute you!
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