Monday, September 3, 2018

Monday Musing: Labor Day



Boss waving his fist at a sweatshop worker.
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, November 3, 1888


I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,  
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,  
but because it never forgot what it could do.

– Naomi Shihab Nye, from "Famous"




9 comments:

  1. Wonderful words, Michelle. Enjoy your day today!

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  2. I think that was the first poem of Naomi's that I ever read! Good pick for today. Reminds me of Marge Piercy's To Be of Use, which ends:

    The work of the world is common as mud.
    Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
    But the thing worth doing well done
    has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
    Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
    Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
    but you know they were made to be used.
    The pitcher cries for water to carry
    and a person for work that is real.

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  3. Perfect quote for the day. Thanks, Michelle.

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  4. Thanks for sharing these words to ponder on Labor Day and ever after.

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