To all the people who I have spoken to who have expressed their concern and love and best wishes on my new job…Thank You! It seems strange that a common event such as getting a job should be cause for such expressions of congratulation. Is this what it was like during the ‘Depression’, when news of a job opening brought hundreds of people out to stand in line out front of a factory or on the docks? When people traveled in their cars laden with all their possessions and their families in hope that they would be chosen out of the crowd of job-seekers to pick the ripe fruit at the farms, or build the roads in Mr. Roosevelt’s new ‘projects’?
This is like my father’s stories of those olden times-which I always thought were remote and mostly fiction-come to life. And walking around on the job site it all seems a little bit grayer and colder and real for me now then it ever was before. The faces of the men as I count them and mark them off on my daily roster are a little more familiar but a little sadder and quieter too. For the most part there is little of the bold, union sense of belonging left in their attitude. That must have been a product of the old, booming economy too. It is much easier to feel important and proud when you are in demand. There is pride still, but it is so tempered…
So, thank you for your good wishes. Thank you for your concern and kind words. I know some of you are holding on for dear life to a job or a home or a dream as well. I have friends who are on the road now because their homes have vanished like dreams. I have friends who are working now-but barely holding on. I have friends who are looking for work hopefully and friends who are losing hope. From one who is now working and who celebrates with all his heart the Sabbath that allows me the peace of mind to sit here and write this note, Thank You and Love.
