labor day...

It is odd that we celebrate labor by taking a day off from it... whereas those who do not labor might better celebrate labor by doing some more of it for a change. Those who live in the purely academic realm or are concerned only with the theoretical and political ought to know that where the hands are engaged greater intelligence and character arise in the individual, and greater health arises in human culture. No nation can be strong in which the hands and head are divided against each other or the hands left idle. We know now that the brain is influenced by the bacterial culture present in the gut, and that having gut feelings are more than just an emotional response. We are bodies, and to think that the head can be filled with facts, without allowing the body to move and ascertain the truth of what we are being taught, is the worst possible way to teach, and the poorest of all possible ways to learn. The mind seeks the truth and the hands find it.

I have a long list of labors for today. I will prepare stock for tomorrow's classes at the Clear Spring School, meet with a web designer working on a new website for Save the Ozarks, and work on the finish of replacement windows that we had installed at various times over the past two years. Because it is also raining after a month long drought, I will use the tractor to repair our long gravel drive.

In the meantime, I'll suggest that labor must be celebrated. The costs of escaping it are the losses of human intelligence, the character of the individual and the wealth of human culture.  We revel in our labor saving devices and shovel down the medications necessitated by our disengagement from the real world and its labors, and from the very real internal rewards of such. Instead, let's grasp joy by putting our hands to work.

Make, fix and create...