Labor is Honorable

“Lord, give me work that’s open to the sky and that’s honest as the horse between my knees.” - Johnny Cash (the original punk rocker)

There’s a statue of E.J. Johnson (as in shoes) on the west side of Binghamton (NY) in Rec. Park that says, “Labor is Honorable”. That statue was a gift from the townspeople to Mr. Johnson, who at one time had most of the Triple Cities’ residents on the payroll.

Hard work keeps you honest.

Hard work is good for the soul.

It’s good to see more and more folks riding one gear bikes because Americans are getting way too fat, lazy and soft. (Why hasn’t a US runner won a major marathon in years? Please see previous sentence for answer.) We, as a country, want everything so easy and guaranteed.

Just look at our immigration mess in the US. Why can’t our government come up with a fair and legal immigration system? It shouldn’t be that difficult? Right?

Know why our government hasn’t come up with an immigration solution? Who else would dig our ditches? Who else would cut our lawns? When I grew up, we all spent time at the end of a shovel. Middle class Americans don’t dig holes any more. And me, I’m probably the only guy in my neighborhood that still cuts his own lawn.

OK. Focus (sorry).

With a geared bike, you know that you can make it over any hill. The only question is, how fast? On a one gear bike, it takes a stout effort to get over any hill and the outcome isn’t always certain. The “walk of shame” is always a possibility. It takes good, old hard work to ride hills on a one gear bike.

So, get on that one gear bike and earn your hills (or as they say in backcountry skiing, “earn your turns”). And don’t be afraid of a little hard work, it’s good for you.