An Atlanta sunrise
Watching this predawn arising behind Stone Mountain made me pause and thank God I have work to come to.
We hear constantly about work/life balance that focuses on the value of the “non-work” part. And that is important. On the weekend I will be as Zack Brown says, “toes in the water, A## in the sand”.
I celebrate my time off. I went and saw Top Gun Maverick and loved the thrill of popcorn and the big screen blaring “Danger Zone” as those people lived, breathed and celebrated the “work ” part of their work/life balance.
However, we need to hear more about the opportunities, wonders and benefits we get from work. My father did not finish the 6th grade. He was a farmer and then, after the drought in 1959 with five hungry children to feed, he became a maintenance man, apprenticing as an electrician.
He learned to be an electrician and earned a hourly wage that had us “moving on up” from a farm house with outdoor plumbing to a house in the big city of Norman Park with 3 bedrooms, fans in the windows to combat the Southern heat and one indoor bathroom for the seven of us. We were amazed at the fortune my father had to allow us to “move on up.”
He became an entrepreneur, running a country store and being an electrician. He would open the store at 6 am. My mom would cook breakfast in back and then get us off to school. She would work in the store and he would go be an electrician.
He would come home at 6 pm and work in the store until 10 pm. My mom would come home at 6 pm, cook our dinner and get us toward bed. She would then make a plate of dinner and carry it to my dad and talk with him while he ate, and sit with him until closing time.
Work was where most of his time went in his work life balance. He loved parts of it, but what he really loved is it allowed him to take care of his family and feed and clothe them. It gave him the satisfaction of knowing the struggle was hard, but it was for a reason. We as a family were happy and thankful for all we had.
Subliminally, we learned that love is expressed by committing to take care of those you are responsible for and the satisfaction of providing for them. Things like the luxury of piling into a station wagon on a pre-dawn Sunday morning and driving 5 hours to the beach, frolicking with our family in the waves, stopping at Stuckey’s and having a meal and drive back late that night.
It is harder today to be as thankful for work. The U.S. has a level of prosperity for its general population unmatched in the world or history. There is the first world, the third world and the U.S. which is the premium world on steroids. Because of that prosperity, we can become blinded to the fact that it comes from hard work at many levels.
Work still has to be a part of it and, if not, eventually it will collapse on itself. Not in the macro, because there are a lot of people out there still working. But in the micro, it will catch up with you.
Maybe for some in the current 15-35 year-old generations, not as much. They are in the time of the greatest wealth transfer in the history of civilization. Most of their parents worked in jobs, bought homes, saved in 401ks, held side jobs, etc. From those efforts some in the younger group have the safety net, have access to parents’ money and are vocal about their lifestyle demands. Some want access to others’ money to have a work/ life balance that minimizes the importance of work. Such a worldview is sustainable for those in that category for a generation, but the next generation will be without– and will not have had the model of the need to “work hard for the money.”
I say some, because the media, social and otherwise, focus on the vocal complaining few. That focus ignores the large majority of the 15-35 year-old group that are working hard, role modeling for their families and paying the bills with the fun times included. Those whose kids will see what they do and benefit from their parents, thus helping provide them a safety net. The parents will hope they give them all they need and more, but hopefully instill that WORK is not a dirty word but a privilege that greats opportunity and a future for many.
We need to recognize that young group is there. Let’s encourage and promote them, find more like them and help them become the backbone of America– the greatest country on earth.
Watching this predawn arising behind Stone Mountain Georgia made me pause and thank God I have work to come to.
Trial attorney John Hall of Atlanta is the founder and chairman of Hall Booth Smith.
