From nauplion@charm.net Mon Sep 4 07:26:44 2000 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.05/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id HAA43006 for ; Mon, 4 Sep 2000 07:26:43 -0700 Received: from fellspt.charm.net (root@fellspt.charm.net [199.0.70.29]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id HAA30315 for ; Mon, 4 Sep 2000 07:26:42 -0700 Received: from charm.net (coretel-116-223.charm.net [209.143.116.223]) by fellspt.charm.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id KAA22813 for ; Mon, 4 Sep 2000 10:26:31 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <39B3B0C0.3342DE4B@charm.net> Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2000 10:25:08 -0400 From: Diana Wright X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en]C-DIAL (Win95; U) X-Accept-Language: en,el,tr MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Classics Subject: Lucretius on Labor Day Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------ABAA4D7C0CD648E3B7B85BB7" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------ABAA4D7C0CD648E3B7B85BB7 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8183-2000Sep3.html --------------ABAA4D7C0CD648E3B7B85BB7 Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1; name="A8183-2000Sep3.html" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline; filename="A8183-2000Sep3.html" Content-Base: "http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/a rticles/A8183-2000Sep3.html" Content-Location: "http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/a rticles/A8183-2000Sep3.html" = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Labor Day 2000 (washingtonpost.com) = = = =
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Monday, September 4, 2000; Page A24

"= THERE IS A weight on their minds, and a mountain of misery lies on their = hearts," wrote a sensitive poet with some insight into the modern malaise= of the well-off. "For each, not knowing what he wants, seeks always to c= hange his place. . . . Here is one who, bored to death at home, goes fort= h every now and then . . . but feeling no better abroad, suddenly returns= =2E Off he courses . . . to his country house in headlong haste. . . . He= has hardly crossed the threshold when he yawns, or seeks oblivion in hea= vy sleep, or even hurries back to the city. . . . [H]e does not know the = cause of his complaint."

=

Maybe the man just needs to put in a good day's work. That has be= en, since long before Lucretius wrote those words 2,000 and some years ag= o, the essential and defining component of most people's lives: having a = job to do. A country--even a rich one--that fails to provide gainful empl= oyment for the many is failing in its basic task, as our leaders are remi= nded on just about every Election Day.

= =

Which is not to say that plenty of people wouldn't mind a little = early retirement and perhaps even a state of affluent unease in a country= house of their own. There are still a good many dirty, dangerous and unp= leasant jobs being done in this high-tech economy. More than 5,000 men an= d 400 women were killed at work last year; many thousands more were injur= ed, misused, abused. Equally disturbing: In our increasingly specialized = world of work, we know less and less about what our fellow workers do--an= d in many cases simply don't want to know too much about what working peo= ple go through to put food on our tables, sheets on the hotel beds and go= ods in the warehouses.

= = =

The word "labor" summons vaguely romantic images of worker= s wielding axes, hammers, plows and mechanic's tools. In fact, most Ameri= cans are a generation or two removed from any serious acquaintance with t= hese implements. The true spirit of this day resides in just taking some = note of what others do (surely this information-drenched society could do= more in that regard) and of how steadily and well many continue to do it= despite great adversity. One could start, perhaps, with a thank you to t= he people encountered laboring away on this Labor Day.

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© 2000 The Washington Post Company

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