MY POINT OF VIEW: Labor Day, the beginning of another season

by Gary Kennedy

Well, here we are again, Labor Day September 2, and for many Mainers the beginning of another season. Children begin another school year while mama makes all the necessary preparation for all the coming events. Dad starts thinking about wrapping up the home in preparation of whatever the Farmer’s Almanac has extrapolated using the wisdom of Father Time. Of course, there are some pleasurable preparations that will be shared by all like checking out the ice fishing equipment, cleaning the camp, if we were fortunate enough to have acquired one during our productive years.

Finding and developing the pleasures that our four seasons bring is extremely important to living in the state of Maine. Winter gives us everything, snow, skiing, sledding, ice skating, ice fishing and the acknowledgement and love of God. (Xmas), Spring gives us aspirations of warmer weather, poor man’s fertilizer for our future crops and my favorite, fresh season maple syrup. Umm, those pancakes are great on a cold spring morning.

Last but not least is the sowing of the seed for the late summer, early fall crops. Don’t you just love that fresh Maine corn on the cob! Then comes summer which allows the children to enjoy their youth and to build and store memories to pass on at story time during those cold, frosty fall evenings; stories that will perhaps be similar to those told to them by their parents. Time through labor produces unimaginable growth to story time, but none the same, hearing grows with telling. Last, but certainly not least, is winter, where we enjoy and curse the winter wonderland. For me winter is a time of reflexions. Did I do all that I could do for God, country and family?

I take a serious look at who I am and what I have done, good and not so good, and make my new year’s resolution encompassing all results from my evaluation. This is my Labor Day. I shall then go to work on helping my world grow.

Labor Day is an annual holiday celebrating social and economic achievements. It is celebrated in most of the world. In most cases the dates are different but most of us have basically the same theme. Mine is personal and mostly private while others are very open and openly shared. It really makes no difference, if you have respect for other opinions and themes. As Americans we are a very long way from this holiday’s origin, the “American Labor Management”, which was a result of poor working conditions during the Industrial Revolution. However, if you look at our current situation we are in a very different place. It’s an election year and full of many things to think of before we vote.

The working environment is one of them, once again. Also, all minorities all the way up through the middle class need to think with intellect, in a soap-opera atmosphere. We have our employment to look at, our morality to question and to deal with, as our fore fathers once did. Our future and our children’s future depend on who and what we are and do.

Labor Day became a national holiday in 1894. That was 130 years ago. Labor Day is in part a fight for the welfare of our country and the security of our families. Mainer’s have always been respected workers; it’s the work environment that has now become the issue.

Windsor Fair is open for Labor Day. Stay safe and God bless you and your family. Remember “it’s not what you take with you; it’s what you leave behind”. Keep America safe and strong. Our children need us. We are the example that they rely on.

The views of the author of this column are not necessarily those of The Town Line newspaper, its staff and board of directors.