Work was always there. My parents had this philosophy that if you were sitting around you needed something to do and on a farm there is always something to do. My Dad is 80 and my Mom turns 77 today, and even at their age they are always busy. They still cut wood for the furnace, build fence, put in a huge garden every year, clear brush and timber and drive to church three times a week. Their pace is a little slower but just as steady. And it is not as easy as it used to be because they have a lost a few parts along the way. My Mom had breast cancer a few years back and my Dad has had two knee replacements, had a kidney removed two years ago, has only one eye, and is seriously thinking about pulling the rest of his teeth since they are annoying him. But they still work everyday. A little less urgently, a few more groans along the way, but still at it. Right now my Father has taken rough cut lumber from a cherry tree that grew on the farm and is making my daughter a hope chest. It will be a wonderful gift for her, as solid as he is.
So work was really the only option when I was growing up. I have been employed at something since I was thirteen, when I first hired myself out to a farmer who offered me ten dollars a day for, in his words, either "work or play." In 1973 that was alot of money for a kid. It soon became clear that there was no play involved. I arrived at work at 7 am and usually got home at 10 pm. The day was spent on a tractor, the evening hauling hay. But, at least I was getting paid and getting to drive all over the place, pretty cool when you are just 13 and barely over 5 feet tall. It was a good summer though, and I had a little jingle in my pocket when it was over, and survived a few close calls (you really can't push a volkswagon bug backward down a steep ozark hill, pop the clutch and get it to do a "wheely," what does happen is not good at all, neither for boy or machine).
I did learn that it was nice to get paid. Even the real nasty jobs were a little more tolerable when you got a paycheck. There seemed to be this simple formula:you work, you get paid. Later on I learned that some people work very little and get paid alot, or some people never have to work at all and have more than enough. I have never been smart enough to figure out how to get there.
Work is a blessing, to enjoy your work is an even greater blessing. I think that is why my folks are always busy. They enjoy picking up walnuts on sunny, crisp fall days, gathering blackberries on a high ridge where you can see for miles, and bringing in a full load of cut and split wood. Dad always carries a hoe in his pick-up, his weapon of mass destruction in his ongoing war against Canadian thistles. To be "plum tuckered out" at the end of the day is a good thing for them. I admire them because at their age they prefer to be dirty rather than dusty.
Proverbs says that all hard work brings a profit. My parents prove the truth of those words, who have made a good "living" by not working to eventually enjoy life, but who have enjoyed their life because of their work. The profit wasn't always the kind you could put in the bank, but it paid great dividends to their souls.
Just a few thoughts about work...with a few more to come.
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4 comments:
My folks are hard workers too. I have been working since about 12 or 13 (although not as hard as you). We raised chickens when I was a kid and there was always something to do there (I DID NOT get paid for that)
I am glad I learned a good work ethic, and I do enjoy working....but I also know how to rest and to NOT work. My folks missed learning how to do that when we kids were still at home.
Probably for our parents, rest was work! And, so that I don't give the wrong impression, there were plenty of opportunities for play growing up, and quite a few hours either in a treehouse or shooting baskets. So our youth was probably simliar...there was always something to do! BTW, ever reach under a cranky hen looking for eggs and find something else? Something not so pleasant....?!
Fortunately we raised broilers...but we kept a few to have eggs in the back yard.
I hated them when they got old and cranky though.
We played a lot as kids and my Dad used to play ball with us on Sundays, but for the most part, we played and they kept on working. Mother canned, sewed, had a garden, cooked every night, ironed all of our clothes.... I don't do any of those things and I pay someone to clean my house every two weeks....maybe I am a slacker!
No, not a slacker! The world has just changed probably. There were a few times that I went out to gather eggs and grabbed a big black snake instead. They would get in and eat the eggs and just lay in the nest...always a thrill!
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