I remember when I was a young lad in the mid 20th century. Growing up on a barley farm was tough work, always getting my hands dirty. It’s very rare that today I see men working as hard as we used to back then. It brings a smile to my face when I do see it though, for most of them are smiling back. There’s something about hard work that makes all the trivial matters of life more trivial, and it’s a lot harder to get angry, much easier to stay peaceful after a long day of toiling.
Like when we used to have “tree day” on our farm, tending to the care of our trees, I sometimes see construction workers cranking out long hours, police officers dealing with emotionally-draining work that eats at your soul – the all around good old fashioned manly work of getting your hands dirty. It’s all nice to see but it’s a lot more rare in the 21st century to see. Back in my day, if a man didn’t work he’d be scorned. Today, men still live with their parents into their late 30s and it makes me shake my head. I know mental illness plays a big part, but in all honestly a lot of men these days were just not raised to the same standard as the men of my day.
Today, I’m an old man but I still work as hard as most young men. I don’t want to drag on this ramble for too long, and actually want to celebrate men who work hard today. I’m proud of Canada and the USA, and frankly I thought things culture-wise would’ve been a lot stranger by now in 2023. Easy times create weak people and weak people create hard times, they say, so maybe we’ll see some changes in the work ethic of our youthful men soon enough. Until then I’ll remember how hard we used to work in the mid 20th century, and how we took none of our blessings for granted.