9/5/2016 1 Comment Labor Day 2016When my dad left the coal mines in Pennsylvania to seek a better job, a better life in Detroit, he went to work for Dodge. After a few years he left to work for a now defunct (I think) Excello Corporation where they manufactured mile cartons an large machinery. (Not sure the connection there). My dad was on the team that built the crates the machinery was shipped in. It was a "union house" and he had to join to keep his job. He worked long, hard hours to support his family.
Because of the union, my dad had excellent benefits that gave us full coverage under Blue Cross/Blue shield. My mother had several major illnesses that were all covered because my dad had us covered because of his job. Somehow when he could no longer work because of an injury (illness?), we still had that coverage. I guess that is why I grew up grateful for the unions as they seemed to protect us and keep us healthy. Growing up in Detroit it was difficult not to be aware of the unions. AFL-CIO, Teamsters, Local Steelworkers, etc. Familiar organizations in every southeastern Michigan home because of the auto industry and all the industries associated with it. That was a long time ago, and times have changed. Unions don't seem to be as strong as they used to be. Jimmy Hoffa has been missing a long time and probably will never be found. I was surprised to hear his son, James Hoffa, being interviewed about the current status of unions on NPR this morning. That shows how little a role unions play in my life these days. These days the way we work has changed drastically. More people change jobs, free lance, independently contract and the like. I worked for thirty years for the County of San Bernardino. I guess you can take the boy out of Detroit, but you can't take Detroit out of the boy. I wonder how different my life would be today if I had not been so indoctrinated with the ideology of company loyalty, working hard and going for security over personal satisfaction. As it turns out today, I am well fixed and secure, and have a good insurance plan. The Protestant work ethic (or Puritan work ethic) is a concept in theology, sociology, economics and history which emphasizes that hard work, discipline and frugality.* Source I think those days are gone. Nowadays we still honor labor with a paid day the day off (usually) and having parades and barbeques. Labor is what keeps our country running. How we work may have changed, but on Labor Day we need to remember its significance. “So long as the laboring man can feel that he holds an honorable as well as a useful place in the body politic, so long will he be a loyal and faithful citizen,” was noted in an 1894 House of Representatives committee report. I guess we all want to be "a loyal and faithful citizen", as long as the "body politic" is loyal and faithful to us. Happy Labor Day NOTE: Click on orange link for more info.
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9/2/2016 1 Comment Late Summer Random StuffJust some cool late summer evening thoughts, musings that have meandered through my mind of late: This summer has been filled with transitions. I'm ready for a bit of "stay the sameness". The east coast is being drowned. The west coast is being parched. Surely there's a way to balance this out. Why does the song, "I'm Just a Girl Who Can't Say No" play over and over in my head? Earworm be gone! I need to deal with my procrastination as soon as possible. Tomorrow would be good. Is anybody really watching the store during this election? It seems we are so focussed on whose gonna be next, that nothing is getting done now. Oh, wait, that's what's been going on for sometime. (No more political observations, I promise, for now). You can't finish a book if you don't sit down and read it. And it doesn't help to be reading three or four at the same time. I used to think green was my favorite color. Then I looked at my clothes and found a secret preference for blue and tan. Dark blue seems to be my favorite. Of course I like red, I just don't wear it a lot. I don't like to call attention to myself. And I am very partial to reds and yellows and oranges in art and decor. Hmmm. I guess favorite color is a relative thing to what your are talking about. Sometimes you think it would be easy to sit down and let your mind stream on, you know, stream of consciousness. Try it. It's not as easy as you might think. Twilight and sunrise are my favorite times of day. Autumn and early spring my favorite seasons. But I like just about any kind of food, junk or nutritious. No matter how far you let yourself go, there's always further you can go, until you go too far. But they don't teach you that in school. Happy Weekend. To me, September has always been more like the beginning of a new year. It was always the time we went back to school as kids, you know, the day after Labor Day as God intended it. But really, it does seem to be the month when everything begins again. Sure the leaves are getting ready to turn brown and fall. Vegetable gardens are having their last hurrahs. Clubs start to meet again. Choirs return to churches after summer hiatus. The new season of television and car models (used to all) begin in September. So it seems appropriate for me to begin again in what is probably one of my favorite months of the year. That in mind, I kind of meandered through the day, listless, without a goal or destination. I began to think that it was a hangover from August. But then I realized that Arts Walk was happening in our downtown arts district. The galleries and museums would be open. Some parking lots would be where budding artists and artisans would be selling their creations. Creative types and their patrons would be out in abundance. So I grabbed my camera and out I went. It was an artist date...in the purest sense. I started at one of my favorite galleries where my friend would be singing. After a quick view of the members' show and chat with the singer during which I discovered that the lovely song she sang was one she had written when she was 18. She said it was the only song she ever wrote. What a shame, because it was beautiful. I just had to admonish her that it's never too late. And I realized I wasn't just saying that for her...but for me as well. After that, I went over to the downtown library for the local literary institute was having an open mic night for poets and writers. I had retrieved my Canon from my car after deciding it was time to start capturing images again. And I started with the readers, one by one. And the audience. And passersby. I realized that I was gathering material for creating images. It felt good. When I left the reading, I went to the art museum where again I captured some raw images. I can hardly wait to work with them. Already the air that was alive with the creative spirit of artists young and old had filled my lungs and, blessedly, awoken that same spirit in my soul. It was inspirational...just what Spirit (capital S) ordered. I began capturing images everywhere. Probably not as many as I think, but enough to prime the proverbial pump. The well, it seems, has not run dry. So welcome September. Sometimes you just have to go out and greet the new month and embrace it for all its possibilities. They say life is what you make it. Perhaps this is that time I make it so. |
Rob McMurray,
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