It’s a day off!

It’s time to head out of town or go fishing or have a barbecue or go swimming or wrap up summer in some other fashion.

But I’ve been thinking about how it should be something more.

I dove down the rabbit hole to learn a little bit about why we even have a holiday called Labor Day, which I didn’t know much about.

According for the U.S. Department of Labor, “Labor Day is an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers. The holiday is rooted in the late nineteenth century, when labor activists pushed for a federal holiday to recognize the many contributions workers have made to America’s strength, prosperity, and well-being.”

The nation has celebrated those contributions in the form of Labor Day for 132 years now, most recently by enjoying a day off.

But I think about the laborers of more than a century ago, industrial workers who often worked 12 hours a day for small wages with few institutional protections — and agricultural laborers in an era of non-mechanized farming often worked even longer hours.

It sounds miserable to me — but the reality is that the alternatives for so many of those individuals were even worse.

I suspect if you traveled back in time to those days, you would probably find that they were people just like we are. Some never complained while others complained all the time. Some loved their jobs and some hated their jobs. Some took advantage of opportunities to improve things and some just went through the motions.

It was a different time, so I don’t think I could truly understand their views, just like I don’t think they could understand our world today.

But I do think there we need to truly value labor, even though it takes different forms.

I wonder if it is something we are effectively emphasizing to the young people of Northern Utah.

I have had countless conversations with people who — when they find out that I work for the Standard-Examiner — describe how their first job was delivering the newspaper. Not only did they have the responsibility to get the paper to the right houses but they often also were in charge of their own collections and sales.

Many of those individuals recall the tough days of lugging the bag through snow or driving rain, but they also express appreciation for all they learned at a young age about commitment, dedication, effective business practices and talking to people.

We often talk sadly about how there aren’t really any similar opportunities for kids these days to gain those same experiences.

Newspaper subscriptions are too widely spread out for a boy or girl on a bicycle to deliver. Some do babysitting or yard work, but those openings aren’t nearly as consistent and don’t usually require the same amount of daily effort.

Besides, so many young people now have their days packed with activities that they are paying for (sports teams, music lessons, etc.) that they don’t have time for such employment.

So how do we teach the value of labor?

I’m not sure what the answers are, but I hope it a question we think about this weekend.

I hope we realize that in, so many ways, being able to work is a blessing, not a curse. We don’t “have” to go to work as much as we “get” to go to work.

I think physical and mental efforts push us to grow and improve ourselves, open the doors to new skills and ideas, and show us who we are at our best.

In an age were we seem determined to make life as easy as possible we never lose sight of just how good it feels to work and do a job well.

Jared Lloyd is the managing editor of the Standard-Examiner and can be reached at jlloyd@standard.net.