Labor of Love

I have a soft spot in my heart for the working class people in this world. People who get up every day and go off to their jobs like clockwork, doing their best all day long to support themselves and/or their families, truly impress me. It doesn’t matter what the job is, if you’re giving it your best effort and take pride in your work, you deserve respect. Hey, maybe that’s why they came up with a holiday called “Labor Day”!

Last Thursday I had to drive to a job site meeting in Huntington Beach. When I stopped at a red light on Brookhurst Street, I noticed a construction crew working on the street lights. (For some reason I’m always checking out the lighting, even in the daytime, I just can’t help it!) When I glanced out my window I noticed a construction worker putting the finishing touches on a new section of concrete curb. He was bent over in the hot sun at 3:00pm in the afternoon totally focused on his work. What caught my attention was that the rest of the curb, in both directions, looked terrible. The old curb was cracked and broken but this dedicated construction worker was doing his best to make sure this small new section looked great.

I spent about a half hour at my meeting and then headed back down Brookhurst towards the freeway. As I stopped again at the same red light, there was that same construction worker, still bent over using his trowel to make sure the smooth new concrete was absolutely finished to perfection. It made me stop and think, first about how some people are born with a strong work ethic and second that almost everyone is born with an innate sense of right and wrong. I’m not just talking about taking pride in our work, I’m talking about how even as little children we somehow knew it was wrong to hurt people and right to help them. Our parents may or may not have tried to teach us to do right, but somehow there seems to be an internal magnet that pulls the needles on the compass of our conscience towards right and repels us away from wrong.

It seems to me that common virtues connect us. Societies all over the world applaud sacrifice and honor courage, while punishing selfishness and dishonesty. Even people who have never heard of God sense His law within them. I guess it’s called having a “conscience” and maybe, just maybe… it’s one more proof of His existence!

God give me work, till my life shall end. And life, till my work is done.

~ Epitath of Winifred Holtby