Labor Day = Michigan

In celebration of work with a day of rest, the national news today seemed perpetually infused with whispers and stories from Michigan. Trudging and struggling with the nation's highest unemployment rate, the stories of work seemed to talk about how busy and bustling this state once was, and now, what happens when the plants shut down and hands go still, idle. We are a working state. Michigander or Midwesterner, we are a hardworking people. We play, and we care, and we love, and we define ourselves by the impact we make, at work and at home. It is interesting to watch what happens when the work goes away. Beyond the economic hardships of families and individuals stressed with worry about how to keep their home or put food on the table, there is a depression of morale, a lost of identity. Who am I if I cannot do, create, work?

Must we change the way we define who we are? I don't think so. We just need to dare to look wider, beyond the periphery of one task in one job. We are workers. We must also dare to be thinkers. Problem-solvers. Adventurers. Explorers. Who knows what possibilities will arise when an auto mechanic joins forces with a school teacher, or an engineer with a film crew. What will be discovered when a former postal worker steps into a job in a social research lab, or a textile manager is hired by a theater producer?

It is not the work itself that defines and drives us. It is our ability to do the work. Any job, any task, any innovation.

Let's see what we can do.