Happy Labor Day

(DISCLAIMER:
I sat down to write a normal blog and ended up with a rant or lecture or something I didn't start out to do.  So there. Just giving you a heads up.  Proceed at your own risk.)

Many people are off today in honor of Labor Day.  I used to approach this day with mixed feelings.  Although it was great to have a Monday off, it meant the beginning of the school year.  In the "old" days, when I was a kid and when I was a young teacher, school actually started the day after Labor Day.  During my career of teaching (1972-2010), school kept creeping up earlier into the calendar.  For the last two decades or so, teachers came in two weeks before Labor Day, and the kids started the week before Labor Day.  Down here in Florida, kids go back several weeks before Labor Day.  So that dread mixed with excitement that I used to get about the new school year starting the next day doesn't really exist for anyone anymore, I guess.

I also realized there are many people who never had Labor Day off.   Nurses and other hospital workers, like my mother, could never count on that day off.  They might get it or they might not.  The hospitals always have to be staffed.  Sick people don't get to take the day off, so they need those dedicated to helping them.  The military, fire fighters, police, and others who serve the public can't count on having that day off.   They protect and serve no matter what the day is.  Currently, there is a huge fire still raging in the Stanislaus National Forest and creeping into Yosemite National Park.  Those are areas that I drove through in August.  That forest fire is not taking the day off.  I'm sure there are thousands of fire fighters out there all day today working to contain the fire.

No matter what Labor Day means to you or your family, I hope you take a minute to think of those who have labored long and hard to bring this holiday to everyone and to those who cannot take the day off because their jobs never take a break. 

Now that I'm retired, every day is potentially the same to me. I don't have to get up and go to work ever again.  I get to choose when I get up and what I do all day.  I can make a weekend different from the rest of the week or the same.  It's all up to me.  Still, I never forget that this life I lead now of seeming leisure is something I earned by working hard for 37 1/2 school years, by paying into my retirement system regularly, by paying into the Social Security system regularly, by staying with the same company for my entire career.  Mark did the same with the federal government.  To some extent we feel like dinosaurs, a dying breed.  Those who are working for those same companies will not receive the same benefits we have because they are in the "new" retirement systems.  Many people have no retirement plan at all through their companies.  Instead, they must rely on their own savings plans, IRAs, and the forces of the stock market to make a nest egg for their future retirement.  I just hope that my kids and family members who are in these situations are able to have a decent retirement when their time comes.  I guess I'll never know for sure.

No matter what is happening in your life today, take a minute to reflect on what Labor Day has been in the past for you and your family and our country.  Take a minute to think about those who are working today because they have no choice.  Take a minute to enjoy your day, no matter where you are or whatever you are doing.

(OK, now that I'm finished my blog and re-red what I wrote, I am surprised at the direction it took.  Maybe it's my nasty cold. I was going to go play Mah Jong, but I cancelled.  I don't think I need to take these germs to Maureen's house.  I don't think they want to hear me cough, blow my nose, and then touch their tiles. YUK!  No, I'm staying home all day.  Mark can go to the gym without me.  I'm giving myself up to this cold today.  If I was a person still working in a job that required work on Labor Day, I would have called in sick!)