When I picked this topic earlier in the summer, I figured it would be an easy “Labor Day” theme. However, when I tried to find the story of labor and management at their best, I wanted to use as a central theme, I couldn’t find it (more on that later). This led me to sort through my own feelings on the topic as well as doing quite a bit of unplanned reading.

My own feelings are complicated by the fact that I “retired” almost 3 years ago from my Administrative Assistant job at Upstate Medical Center. I use the oldest name for the Medical Center, because I worked there, in psychiatry and radiology, for 29 years – most of my working life. However, as many of you know, “retirement” is just another word for “Labor” – only the ways to “keep score” change -- usually financially!

At work, whether it be your paid job or a volunteer job --what you do matters, because you trade your life for it. Rev. David loves to quote one of Mary Oliver’s poems that asks the question:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?”

So, will it be a chore – or a celebration? Or will you be able to mix celebration into the chores? And do YOU have any control over the answers?

Mary Oliver was the judge this year for our Comstock Review contest. I am the volunteer (define that as “unpaid”) “Managing Editor”. There were days when opening thousands of poems – twice as many as usual, because of the power of Mary’s reputation --felt much more like LABOR than Celebration.

As I read, scored and sorted for other editors, I felt like I was chained to the desk instead of being able to play in my wonderful garden. As we sent out the hundreds of contest results during this last week (while I struggled to prepare this service), I often wondered about my own choice of “work.” But I had a feeling of meaning and deep satisfaction looking at the excellent poems that were shared with us and knowing we will produce a fine magazine this Fall – worthy of Mary Oliver – and worth all our hard work!

Studs Terkel wrote the following in his book of interviews with working men & women, first published in 1972 and simply called “Working”.

Work is about daily meaning as well as daily bread. For recognition as well as cash; for astonishment rather that torpor; in short, for a sort of LIFE rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying... We have a right to ask of work that it include meaning, recognition, astonishment, and life.”

Many of my thoughts coalesced when I read a sermon by Marilyn Sewell in her Beacon Press book, “Wanting Wholeness, Being Broken.” She became a late-life UU minister after a long and varied work history, including being an editor of two of my favorite collections of poetry! (Which is why I ordered her book). After she went through a long explanation of all the things that are wrong with an increasingly two-tiered society of vast wealth and bare subsistence, she commented that there must be a better way. As she says: She “keeps going back to Freud, who said that human beings need two things: love and work. We need to know we are cherished, for no reason other than that we exist. And we need to give the gifts that are in us to give.” Now there are many things I would argue with Freud about – but not this!

I believe labor is what you choose to do with who you are. Unless the job is physically or psychically dangerous, most of us are about as happy as we decide to be.

The words of others helped me hold on when my own jobs seemed demeaning or dead-end. One was posted on the back door of the house where we lived for 22 years. I discovered it in an advertisement and later learned it was written by Horace Mann: “Refuse to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” My sons said it was impossible to live up to, but I pointed out that not every “victory” saves the whole world. We can have small victories every day – for ourselves or those close to us. After all, we are part of humanity

Two other quotes were vital to giving me direction in my life: One was written by an Allstate Insurance executive. This could apply to every aspect of life: “There is no limit to the good a man can do if he doesn’t care who gets the credit.”

The other came from McCall’s magazine: “Happiness is not a destination; it is a method of life.”

Of course, deep philosophy only goes so far in helping us cope. Humor can often be the only saving grace in a world filled with unending chores:

Two posters were influential in helping me maintain my sanity. One, hung in the hallway at home where many family fights started, had Garfield and Odie going at each other, making a mess. It said “We must all learn to laugh at each other.” (Of course I would now say with each other!)

The other hung in my office at the hospital. It was a picture of a large, prostrate hippopotamus being jumped on by a flock of turkeys. It said “Don’t let the turkeys get you down!” – and there were a LOT of turkeys – mostly staff, not patients.

Part of the reason labor is a chore is that many of us think of what we do as “work” rather than as a way to express ourselves in the context of the world outside home. Work not only directs our lives, it gives direction to our lives as well.

Sometimes we’re forced to take jobs we hate and continue in them in order to survive. Some of the earlier readings were chosen to put people here in touch with the marginal and substandard existence of many in this world. Most, although not all of us in this congregation, have choices we could make – if we wanted to pay the price to get out of the boxes we are in. Sometimes, considering the price that would have to be paid makes us more content with living in the box. (This happened to me on more than one occasion in my work career.) The closed, locked box is “redecorated” by contrast to the choices available outside. Sometimes really considering the prices to pay to get out of the box becomes the motivating force to “just do it!”

There’s a trick I learned about making tough decisions: Change one thing, then look at the situation again. The change will make the view different. It may be all you need to start a series of changes. On the other hand, some choices feel like burning your bridges while you’re in the middle, running for the other side!

A poster of the Grand Canyon I bought because of its beauty had words that motivated one of the biggest changes in my entire life: “Don’t be afraid to take a big step. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.” It turned out to be the right step for me – I’m grateful to my Higher Power for that – and for my friends who kept me as together as I could manage at the time.

Robert Heinlein, one of my favorite science-fiction authors wrote something like: ”Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few.” A recent Parade magazine article had some useful guidelines for getting back control of life in all its aspects – work, play and money. I want to share some of the suggestions from Sue Shellenbarger’s article:

1. List your most deeply felt priorities and goals. Take some quiet time and ask yourself if the way you spend your time matches the list.

2. Keep a log of your spending to identify ways to reduce financial pressure.

3. Set aside time each day to reflect on what’s important.

4. Explore flex-time or work-at-home options to reduce job stress.

5. Restrict t.v. viewing to shows you value

6. Turn off your cell phone, pager and fax at the end of the work day.

7. Limit your internet use to the purposes you really care about

8. Develop your relationships. Allow yourself time for conversations, letter-writing and shared activities

9. Analyze your schedule to see where it might be simplified by reducing commuting time, errands and chores.

10. Allow your children only one extracurricular activity at a time.

11. Sell or give away possessions you haven’t used for 6 months. (If you choose this last solution, remember the church garage sale coming up in October!!

Of course, most of us cannot afford to change our jobs or quit them but we all can make choices that give us more control. Basically, ask yourself “What really gives me happiness??”

Obviously none of this is easy! The article I was searching for to share with you, described one man’s unique solution for his own life. He founded a company that grew very large and made millions. He employed hundreds of people but continued to live in the same modest house while he and his wife raised their children. When he decided to retire, he took only enough profit to continue his modest life – and gave the business and the rest of the money to his employees. He valued them because he felt he never would have been a success without them. I wish I had the name of the man – this is a true story and there were other delicious details.

Contrast this to the story quoted in the Marilyn Sewell’s sermon. The same year that IBM “enjoyed its best quarter ever, its leaders decided that 120 of their executive secretaries were overpaid by regional standards and gave them cuts of up to 36 percent. Simultaneously, IBM’s top 5 executives split bonus money of $5.8 million, including a $2.6 million boost for CEO Louis Gerstner, which allowed him to take home more than 12 million dollars annually!”

Rev. Sewell said “I think of the Quaker term ‘right relationship’: many companies are not in right relationship with their workers.”

Niki Scott, a columnist featured in our local paper, wrote an article a few years ago on “What makes a good boss.” I was struck by the fact that what makes a good boss also makes a good employee, a good person – and, in this context, a good Unitarian-Universalist! These are actions that can put us in “right relationships.” Good, actually GREAT bosses have the following traits:

1. They ask us to work only as hard and enthusiastically as they are willing to

2. They treat us like responsible adults – not scatter-brained children – by delegating both authority and responsibility.

3. They offer recognition and appreciation for jobs well done.

4. They help us to move ahead – sometimes to their own discomfort and detriment.

5. They assume we are as conscientious, honest, competent, hard-working and reliable as they are – and defend us vehemently when we live up to our mutual standards and others put us down.

6. They ask politely for what they need, without barking orders or talking down.

7. They’re objective and even handed, do not play favorites or play one person against another.

8. They’re compassionate as possible when our personal responsibilities must come before our obligations at work, because they are aware of us as individuals.

9. They’re assertive – willing to confront us directly - and open-minded.

10. They’re discreet, do not gossip -- or criticize and humiliate us in public.

11. They’re accessible.

12. They’re patient

13. Day after day they treat their employees with the same respect and decency with which they want to be treated.

I’d say it’s that old “Golden Rule” again!

Marilyn Sewell’s sermon concludes: “We need always, every day, to ask ourselves what is the ultimate authority in our lives, and surely the answer must come back that there is something higher we answer to than our boss. If we give ourselves in service to the Holy [whatever our definition may be], our work will be “dedicated work” and will bless others and make our own lives good. We work in order to live, but not just physically. We work so that the life of the spirit might thrive as well.”

I should mention here I think “work” includes all forms – paid, volunteer, self-chosen hobbies that produce an outcome, and hobbies we involve ourselves in just for our own growth or enjoyment.

Rev. Sewell has two “gen-X sons” who are trying to find their way, who talk to her about their confusions and their longings. Work and Love. It’s always the same. She would like to say the following words to them but she knows they would just say “Oh, Mom.....!!” I hope you don’t want to say “oh, Peg.....!” to me, but I think they are worth sharing:

“Praise God with your body, care for it and honor it. Do no less with your mind. Give your gifts, and do what brings you joy, deep joy. Forget about making money just now – that will come. First find what you love and give yourself to it. Do work that will sustain you through the times when love is gone and the night is long. Do work you will not be ashamed to tell your children about. And do work that, when you come to finish this life, you can look back on and smile at, saying, ‘I enjoyed that, yes, I did, and I made the way a little easier for others.’”

As to the question I posed – is your Labor a Chore or a Celebration? Only you can answer that. But you will be answering it with your life. May most of it be a wild and precious astonishment, a celebration of LIFE. Blessed be.

Peggy Sperber Flanders

Religious Services Committee

First Unitarian Universalist Society of Syracuse

quotes are from Marilyn Sewell’s book,

Wanting Wholeness, Being Broken: A Book of Sermons.”

Fuller Press, 2135 NE 16th Street

Portland, OR 97212 © 1998

Empathy Exercise/Meditation section:

Bend down and pick cotton.

Bend down and pick strawberries.

Bend down, bend down –

feel the hot sun.

Reach up and pick apples.

Reach up and pick peaches.

The ladder’s round rungs will force pain into feet.

Stretch... stretch more... your muscles will ache.

Feel the ladder unsettle, shift under your weight.

Bend down.... Lift up.

Haul the full heavy baskets.

Don’t stop, don’t waste time

enjoying fresh air.

The aroma of fruit is there,

all around you,

but you don’t have time

to notice ---- or care.

Bend down though your back hurts

and pick the ripe lettuce.

Bend down, though sweat spills

into your eyes.

Don’t stop, don’t pause

don’t ask for fresh water.

You have quotas to meet.

You can’t scream. You can’t cry.

Need a day off? Then there’ll be no money.

Sick, weak or tired? Your family goes without food.

Don’t ever complain you’re exhausted and frightened.

Don’t carry your weight? You’ll be cut from the crew!

Don’t stop. Bend down and pick the fresh spinach.

Don’t stop. Reach up and twist off the ripe pears.

Don’t stop, don’t pause – need I say more?

Your labor is crucial..............................

You’re expendable as air.

Peggy Sperber Flanders 8/15/01 for
Labor: Chore or Celebration FUUSS 9/01