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Sunday, September 4, 2005 Labor Day Weekend
Call to Gather Welcome! It is nice to see you on a day that for many of us is part of a busy Labor Day weekend in 2005. To honor labor and work, it seems that we would want to take a rest. But when I think about the topic, being busy at something is central to our humanity. So please join us on this lovely Sunday morning, as we reflect on the meaning of work in our lives. Also, on this day, let’s keep in our hearts all the people who as a result of Hurricane Katrina have experienced life-altering upheaval and tragedy. Here are the words of New Orleans jazz trumpeter Irvin Mayfield: “Tragic situations give a person the mandate to define themselves for what they’re going to be and who they are.” (National Public Radio, Morning Edition, September 2, 2005. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4829486).
A Personal Glimpse at Labor Day’s History byPrice Flanagan Growing up, I experienced Labor Day in the company of extended family members, most of whom were farmers, farm laborers, and children of farmers who had moved to towns, cities, and suburbs. My elders viewed Labor Day as a day off from all but the most essential chores in prelude to the long hours of harvest work that was coming in October. I saw the day as a day off from school, which had just started, and the enjoyment of a hamburger, thickly sliced tomatoes, pork and beans, and homemade ice cream. Labor Day was an occasion to gather the family. I didn’t know much about the holiday itself. In 1894, Labor Day became a national holiday during the administration of Grover Cleveland. Prior to that time, labor leaders organized protest parades in honor of those who work. At first, workers were not allowed the day off. In the late 1800’s in this country an eight hour day was unheard of for the common worker, let alone a day off in honor of work. I can’t easily imagine myself back in the mid-1800s at a factory in a U.S. city, but it doesn’t look like a pretty picture. My father’s occupation as a union sheet metal worker (until the mid-1980s) was sometimes a point of contention that pierced the Labor Day discussion among the men in my family. What I recall though is that they all held a sense of dignity and respect for their work. And many of them faced sweeping changes that affected their livelihoods. They had that in common.
Meditation
This topic of “work”, something we can all relate to… something we all “do”,
perhaps for some of the same reasons … perhaps for some different reasons, too… perhaps for reasons we don’t often realize or think about.
We will share a time of meditation together and a time of silence. Then you may take a few moments to jot down your thoughts for yourself. After that, there will be some time for a few of you to share, as you feel inspired.
So let us begin:
Find yourself comfortable in your chair, perhaps closing your eyes, if you feel comfortable.
Imagine your mind is a page … your thoughts are the words or pictures on this page.
Find the empty space or clear space on the page in your mind. Maybe it’s in the margins or around the edges. See if you can find space on the page in your mind for something new.
Without you “knowing” the answer ahead of time, leaving space for whatever “bubbles up” from inside of you.
This question is:
“Why do you” work” and what does it mean to you?”
(pause)
(Price) Maybe you work for money,
Maybe you work for other reasons, too.
Maybe you work for:
Expression Connection
(Deb) Purpose Meaning
(Price) Creativity Community
(Deb) Struggle Challenge
(Price) To make something
(Deb) To grow to serve
(Price) Power Avoidance
(Deb) Recognition
(Price) Fulfillment or just something to do
(Price) Other questions that might spark something inside of you…
(Deb) And our main question, again…
“Why do you “work” and what does it mean to you?”
(silence)
You may have found some thoughts, some clarity, some answers or perhaps more questions. Whatever your experience, I invite you to take a few moments now, if you choose, to write your thoughts on the note card.
Sung Response #157 – Step by Step the Longest March
Congregation Participation
We invite some of you who may be willing to share with the group a few "short phrases" in response to the question, “Why do you “work” and what does it mean to you?”.
Our intention is to show the diversity of work experience in our congregation ... and it could help us all get to know about each other a little more as well.
Of course, there are only “right” answers to the question and lots of flexibility for your brief responses.
We ask you to stand as you are able and say your name first… and then some brief words as you like.
Bog Walking and Work by Price Flanagan
On February 22, 2004, my wife Lea Ann and I took a walk in an upland bog in Ireland. We learned about this hike in a book called Kerry Walks, and I know the date because in our copy of the book there is this note: “Stepped into bog, water left leg, up to groin. Peaty water. Rough.”
The beginning of the walk took us over roads and paths, but they soon gave way to an area of rocks and tussocks that made getting a footing difficult. There was no path and no signage other than the granite crags in the distance. We were halfway through this part of the walk when I stepped off a gray rock into a pocket of water that looked like solid, though soggy, earth. My left leg had committed to the step, and as the rest of me sank into the brown water, my sense of time slowed. "How deep this water is going to be?" I wondered. I imagine how someone watching might have seen a person take a step, drop into a deep knee bend, then bob up using his other leg and his arms in a sort of bog aerobics. I called to Lea Ann, "Don't come this way!" As we were resting a moment at the point where the walk joined a path on the other side of this rough area, we noted the need for walking sticks and had a discussion about the advice in the book that said "DO NOT attempt alone." At this point, the two other hikers we saw in the distance all afternoon passed us. We greeted them, and Lea Ann said, “It’s nice to see someone else.” “And a couple of lunatics at that,” was the reply. In the months before our trip, I started a journey of another kind. I have some experience with this other kind of walking, but it has been a while. I'm looking for work. Here's a little background on my work. After holding a variety of jobs and a trip to graduate school to study English Lit in my late twenties, I decided ten years ago to find work that would gain me some business experience and open the way to a job in information technology. I like to think that a math minor and degree in a liberal arts discipline opened the door, but I think what really made the difference was my determination to make it happen. I thought I had found an occupation that I would want to stay with for quite a while. Quite a while turned out to be seven years. On the surface of things I had a good job with decent prospects, but over time I grew restless. At first I thought that I would make the best of it and told myself to hang in there. If I decided to make a change, I would look for another job in the same field, or so I thought. Then as I tried to picture that scenario for myself, I realized that if I were to change jobs, I would not want stay in the same occupation. Why, then, would I want to continue in my present job? Away from work, and to some extent at work, I was beginning to feel a pull toward activities in which the words facilitating, managing, mentoring, helping, researching, advising, and leading came up. I practiced some these activities in my job and of course did some of them more effectively than others, but I found it difficult to sustain my motivation. My heart wasn't in it there, and I found it difficult to develop these "softer" skills in a way that seemed authentic to myself. But overcoming the inertia of staying in a job I knew and did reasonably well was difficult. Add to that a good salary and benefits and a place where I knew many people, and the inertia grew stronger. The work, though, had simply lost its savor beyond my desire to spice it up. The bog that I knew had become more unpleasant than the bog that I didn't. The adventure had begun, and it was both scary and exhilarating. Mostly scary. In February of this year, I took a position in a financial planning business that my parents own and operate. While I help the business at time when its owners are looking for ways to transition to retirement, I sense that my work lies along some other path. And so the journey continues. Lately, I've thought about all the reasons people work. The essential reason we all work is to earn money to pay for our basic needs. I'm reminded of a scene in the movie "It’s a Wonderful Life." George Bailey is sitting with his guardian angel Clarence at Nick's Place, and he says, “Well, it [money] sure comes in handy down here, Bub.” We also work for recognition and success--for the satisfaction that comes from a job well done. And sometimes we find ourselves working for the recognition or desires of family and peers. We also work to create meaning and well-being for ourselves and others. This is the work that we yearn for, that can bring joy in the very doing of it, and that helps us develop our authentic selves. This joy doesn't make it easy work. I can picture a scenario where the work I am seeking for meaning may not be the work that I do to earn my basic needs and a bit more to lay by for the future. For me, in the short term, this may be a practical step on a longer work journey. However, one of the questions behind this strategy is not one that will move me through the bog: "How do I keep a work life balance? That question sounds now to me to be quite strange. When we work, are we not living? This is a different question from "Can I create in my life sufficient tension and challenge to keep me engaged and active, and can I manage my energy level and allow for renewal and recovery? The kinds of questions I am trying to ask now are more foundational. They are directed at finding what motivates and taps into my heart's desire: What do I want to give myself to? What will bring me into a authentic connection with myself and others? What would I do if I focused on what I care most about? What work would I do out of love? What would I do if I choose to move forward in spite of the fear I feel? (These questions by the way are prompted by a book called The Answer To How is Yes: Acting on What Matters, by Peter Block.) I'm slowly becoming accustomed to asking these kinds of questions, and as I do so, I engage in another type of work. This work is what I do to bring all the other reasons for working into a practical harmony. This is the inner work I do and action I take to be mindful and authentic. This work accepts that I have to conduct an inventory of my experience, skills, and abilities, but insists that I query my heart's desires as I look for work. Well, this sounds like a lot of hard work, and I suppose it is. The description of the walk we took in County Kerry Ireland sums it up pretty well for me. Kevin Corcoran writes: “A spell-binding but very tough circular walk through the uplands, using two green roads as access and exit routes. The section of trackless upland heath joining the two roads is quite strenuous. Thus you need to be fit and agile, with plenty of experience. Definitely NOT suitable for casual walkers ... DO NOT attempt it on your own. Option: The beginning of the route is suitable as a moderately tough, one way walk for the less experienced.”
I like the fact that there are options and people to go with on this strenuous and spell-binding adventure that awaits.
“Perspectives on Work and it’s meaning in our lives”
by Deb Elliott
Labor Day brings the opportunity for us to honor our “labor”,
And to honor ourselves for the “work” that we do.
Whether it is for pay or not, …whether you are retired or not …out-of-work or not…
there is something you do with your day that could be defined as “work”:
homework, housework, paper work, Inner work, Volunteer work, … your life’s work.
Whether you are the one to take care of all the details behind the scenes or are out front in a more visible way, whether others know what you do and appreciate it …or not…
I invite you to take a moment to look at the “work” you do… how you spend your day, and honor yourself for the contribution you make to life, just by being in it.
(pause)
I think my perspective on “work” might be somewhat unique. I believe “work” is a way for us to interact with others… so we can see another angle of ourselves in the mirror… or, in other words, what we “do” while we are learning about ourselves.
My perspective on “work” was shaped by my parents. I remember my Dad saying “I get to go to work today”. He said it in such an upbeat way, almost singing. You might guess that he had been out-of-work sometime and therefore learned to appreciate “work”. But, that wasn’t the case. He just always had a good attitude about work…work at work… and work at home. My mom is that way, too.
They never talked about hump day or counted down to the weekend. Weekend days were filled with work things, too, just in another way. But it didn’t seem like it. At home we played at “working”. It was fun to wash the cars and manicure the yard with Dad. Sometime Mom and I would take all of the clean crystal and special dishes out of the hutch to wash them, just to enjoy them. The focus was on the enjoying and not on all the “work” it took.
My career has shaped my perspective on “work”, too, or perhaps the other way around, my perspective has shaped my career. I’m the owner/founder/director of the College of Massage and the Healing Arts Center. I love what I do:
While I’m teaching, I find I’m learning… even more than I am teaching … usually about myself. About my thinking and how it shapes my experience … and ways I can grow, too. I learn things I can improve about myself everyday, thanks to the mirror of my world and what it shows me.
Maybe my perspective on “work” is partly why I don’t think it make as much difference where we work or what we do as some people think. Since I think “work” is really just an opportunity for us to learn our life lessons, we can do that anywhere.
In other words, I think that our life lessons can’t be avoided. They will follow us. Kind of like the book, some of you may know, titled …”Where ever you go, there you are” by Jon Kabat-Zinn. That’s the way I feel about our life lessons.
If we have things to learn about: Speaking up or boundaries, Authority issues, Earning approval or not needing to earn approval…
Our lessons will find us… whatever we are… whatever we are doing…
Whether you work for a big company or small business… whether it is as a part of the kid’s soccer games… or with family gatherings... or … even with the ways we interact at church. Whatever our life lessons are, I believe they will find us.
I’m not saying that it is completely irrelevant what work we choose. Some people thrive in outdoor jobs or work better alone or in groups. To me the setting or what we choose to do is less important than our attitude and our willingness to open the gifts of the lessons coming our way.
There is an old Buddhist saying… Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
This week I found myself thinking about the gifts from my “work” more than usual. Perhaps because of preparing for this talk today, but I think even more as I tried to imagine how the lives of our neighbors to the south have changed.
I have friends with family who lived in New Orleans. They are alive and have been evacuated. They aren’t sure at this point how much of their worldly possession they have lost. What they do know is that “life as they knew it” is a total loss.
Everything about their day is different now... where they wake-up …and every minute of the day after that … is different now.
They’ve lost familiar surroundings and people, their daily routine and daily structure, their livelihood.
This week I have found a new appreciation for the simplest things, for a shower, for a drink of fresh water, to be able to call my family and friends… and for my “work”, too. I appreciated my “work” before, but even more this past week. Perhaps this tragedy is an opportunity for us all to look at our lives and further appreciate not only the “things” we have, … our homes, our offices, our cars,… our church… but also to further appreciate the way we “get to” spend our time.
Earlier, I mentioned that Labor Day was an opportunity for us to honor ourselves for the “work” that we do.
Today, I’m also grateful for how my “work” allows me to “get to” spend my time:
To express myself, to create, to interact with people, The way my “work” brings meaning and purpose … a way to serve, and for the way “I get to” experience my day, on this Labor Day, I celebrate my “work”, and invite you to celebrate yours, too.
As a part of that celebration, let’s sing a fun song together that Price Flanagan picked out, “I’ve been working on the Railroad” but, change the first word to “we’ve”... “We’ve been working on the Railroad”.
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