Where the is No Work

Ever imagine what it would be like to live in a world where no one had to work? Oh come on, everyone has. Everyone has wished at some time in their life (at least once) that they did not have to do the work that was assigned or expected. So lets peek into this world for a moment, shall we.

First thing in the morning you wake up and realize that it's a holiday. You don't have to go to school so you decide that you want to go see a movie and then to get a pizza for dinner. First you want to play Call of Dutyfor a few hours on the Xbox and maybe even Skype with a few friends before heading out to the theatre. Sounds like a fun day so let's get started.
After you walk into the bathroom you realize something is wrong here. There's no water to brush your teeth, "What the Crap!" so you try the kitchen faucet, none there either. Then it occurs to you that the house is hotter than unusual. It's September 6th so it is supposed to be hot, but not THIS early in the day. "Just grab a soda out of the fridge and head back to bed" is what you are thinking. You open fridge and you notice the light isn't on. "Guess the bulb when out." You grab your bottle of soda and head back to your room when you notice the dog is peeing on the floor by the door. "MOOOMMMM! The stupid dog just peed on the floor." "What!?", she yells back as she is putting on her house coat. "Didn't you let him out?", you ask "Are you just now getting up, are you sick or something?" She looks at you with surprise and then quickly at her wrist watch and yells, "Dear Lord, it's 9:30! What is going on? Why didn't my alarm go off? Is the power off again?!" as she whirls back into her room. "What about the stupid dog, Mom?" you yell. She opens her door and with just one look you know she means for you to take care of him AND clean up his mess. "What the crap! Why do I have to take care of him?" you mumble as you stomp down the hall.
After taking the dog outside and cleaning up the huge puddle at the back door you come in the kitchen to find your mom frantically talking to herself about something being the "Dumbest thing she had ever heard of". She is staring at the front page of the newspaper with both hands on her hips. "Whose dumb idea was this? I'm guessing it was probably a man. A man who doesn't have to do much for himself or probably wanted the long weekend off to go out of town. Why would he care if the town falls to ruin.", she exclaims as she picks up the paper and throws it back down on the table. She pours a glass of juice and picks up the paper then heads to the patio door. She looks back and says, "I'll be outside looking over what we are supposed to do about this genius plan. This is STUPID absolutely stupid!"
Your mom sits on the patio with her feet in the chair next to her so you plop down in the lounge chair and ask, "So what's it say? Why don't we have water and electricity? My cell phone doesn't work either so they better get it fixed fast." She says,"It appears that everyone has the day off." She raised her eyebrows and reads,"The National Guard has been brought in to man three areas of service in case of emergencies, a Medical post at the hospital, Police and Fire departments have been staffed as well." "Hum...'Labor Day should be called No Labor Day'...'everyone should be off not just bankers, and mailmen' the article reads. Well it appears that someone let a kid be Mayor for the day or something." She continues to read in silence. Suddenly you remember hearing those words somewhere else. Your heart starts to pound and your feel like you just got caught cheating on a test. Your English teacher asked the class to write a paper about what Labor Day means to you, it was about 2 weeks ago that you turned it in. Suddenly you feel like you just ran 10 miles in the burning sand. Your heart is thumping hard and you start to sweat and as you start shifting your weight to get up your mom says, "Are you listening to this?" You realize that your mom has been reading the article out loud to you and you weren't even hearing her. You mind was racing over the words you wrote in your paper about Labor Day, about how it wasn't fair that only certain people were allowed to be off on Labor Day. How you never got to do the fun stuff that other kids do over the three day weekend because your mom still had to work. Aw man, did you cause this crazy power outage and loss of water availability? What if your paper won some kind of contest and as a prize they did what you asked.. give everyone the day off, EVERYONE! You look at your mom as her expression changes from annoyance to concern, "Are you ok?" "Yeah, mom. What did the paper say again?" She glances back at it and says, "The mall is closed, the library is closed, all gas stations and grocery stores are closed. It's kind of like being in a state of emergency only the hospital, police and fire departments are working." "So no movies either?", you ask. "No and I don't want to go anywhere because I don't have much gas in the car. I was going to get gas on the way to work this morning."
So now you are stuck at home with not electricity, no phones, can't even take a shower or brush your teeth. Most of your friends live more than walking distance so you can't even ask if they want to get together and do.... what, what would you do? You can't play video games or watch t.v. No pizza delivery, no nothing.

Now I may have made it clear why there are jobs for everything from making corporate decisions to delivering pizza but what I might not have covered is why it is important for people to work. Work is an unavoidable and necessary fact of life that can't truly be avoided. It can be put off or avoided for a short period of time but should never be avoided all together. A life without work would only result in boredom, worthlessness and a loss of dignity. Work has a purpose in our lives, besides meeting the needs of humanity it can bring great rewards. Not just monetary rewards like money and stuff but also satisfaction from a job well done. People that feel good about what they do usually have a good attitude, and attitude is important. It is also important to have a positive attitude about the fact that work is a responsibility and a part of life. In other words, everyone has to do it or the system breaks down and we have days like the one in the story above. Responsibility goes hand in hand with rights. For every right you have, you have a responsibility. Accepting a task and doing the best you are able to do and standing by what you have done makes you responsible. Those upheld commitments to friends, family, community and country are what makes you dependable and responsible. A successful and mature person is a responsible person.