3 Day Weekends

Yea for 3 Day Weekends - and for the delicious autumn season that has so many of them. I seriously

them. And I am sure there are so many in the fall and early winter because we have so little daylight during those months. The Powers That Be must think we all need a little more daytime to ourselves - so hey - let's give 'em a Monday Off.  Yes. I know. I could take off a Monday from my little store of annual leave, but these? They feel like freebies. Bonuses. And I appreciate them to the max.

It's been a hard summer to be a good Virgo. My brain has been so fuzzy at times I've wondered if, well, maybe I wasn't getting .. um. ah. well ... old!!! I haven't been goal directed - as little goal directed as an ENFP ever is - nor have I been particularly creative and projects I have started have crashed and burned. But I am going to blame it on extreme heat, extreme losses, and oh - anything else I can toss blame on for my Summer-0-Sloth.

But now there is this lovely 3 Day Weekend - in honor of the 19th century Labor Movement. In school, in the early 1960's, I was taught that the labor movement was a vital and good thing that finally freed the American worker from industrial serfdom. To some extent, I still believe it - but I am such a non-joiner  collective activity always gives me the creeps. That is - until I want to get something done and then - well - then I wouldn't dream of taking on a big project without gathering a team around me. So. I have mixed feelings about collective movements and as I sit here writing this I realize it's not the collective that bothers me but the size of the collection. The bigger a group gets, the more it resembles a mob. (to me) I never trust a big crowd and I love a tidy committee. And so it should come as no surprise that I moved to a farm just outside a tiny little town in a county with a population under 12K people.

I like miniatures and doll houses too.

So along comes Columbus Day - which is a much newer holiday and isn't even celebrated on October 12 anymore. In 1992, BD read to us from the Log Book of the Santa Maria every day. It was one of the most interesting out-loud reading experience I've ever had and I came to have a much deeper understanding of, and respect for, Columbus. It's why I was so disgusted with the caliber of commemorations produced by museums and media, which mostly portrayed him as Satan afloat. History is a touchy subject anyway because so much of it involves winners and losers. Each generation puts its own interpretation on whatever record exists - a record that was created under the influence of the mores and values of a specific place, time, and culture. I love to read history - but I always try to absorb it with a good dose of skepticism -  or at least with the caveat "so the author claims" hovering always in the back of my mind.  

I feel a little differently about Veteran's Day - but that is because my daddy was a WWII veteran and maybe also, because we were on the winning side in both of those "Great Wars".  And truth to tell - I hate all wars and I haven't been able to read much about any of them in a long time. The older I get, the more I resent warfare. I understand. I know that we are all humans and so each of us is as fallible as the next - but I wish wish wish the urge to fight had not been put into our DNA.

Wait. No. That's not what I mean - I love a good fight against some things - a fight to improve myself, to learn something new, to create something wonderful. Fighting against internal sloth or stupidity or disease - the fight against suffering or poverty - I love that sort of struggle. It's the fight that's based on greed, that stems from the belief that there is only so much of goodness to go around and if somebody has something good it means you don't have it - so you better grab it from him - it's that sort of fight that depresses me.

Hey. What's this? I was all up about the 3 Day Weekend and now I'm getting all gloomy and political. Well. Enough of that. Just know - I love me a 3 Day Weekend. I particularly love this one 'cause I'm gonna eat crabs on the porch, with friends. After I clean the house.

Oh. Yes. That's another reason I like a 3-DW! Because I will clean house on a Saturday and when it's a 3-DW I get 2 days to enjoy it!

Happy Labor Day to you all.