Ora labora

Another Labor Day Weekend. The official annual Labor Day Macaroni Salad is waiting in the fridge for the trip to Santa Monica in about an hour for the official annual Labor Day BBQ with long-time friends and their neighbors. We'll compare notes about how fast the summer went by. Talk about who went where and saw what. Be amazed at how much the kids have "shot up" over the summer. Maybe talk a little politics or baseball.

You know -- it'll be that "lifestyle" in action -- the one that's undermining western civilization.

And then we'll schlep back to Altadena and gear up for the back-to-program-year/mid-term election event driven calendar to drive us until we get to the point where the holidays-are-coming event driven calendar takes over and then it'll be the New Year ... and we'll probably head to Santa Monica for another annual gathering with long-time friends and their neighbors to compare notes about how fast the year flew by and ... well, you get the point.

Meanwhile, the work goes on. Ora labora. "Come labor on." One of my favorite hymns. One that, incidentally, has the distinction of being the only hymn in the Episcopal Hymnal that ends with a recipe:

• Serve ants well done.

(You can thank Liz Habecker for that one ...)

Anyway, I guess the point of this blog -- which I should get to or I'm going to be late for the BBQ -- is that today is a great day to not only refuel for the work ahead but to reflect on the work that (as another favorite hymn puts it) "has brought us thus far on the way." To give thanks for those who've paved the way ... who've dreamed the dream ... who believed "si, se puede" and who give us the legacy of believing that we can, too.

So bring on the macaroni salad. And then we'll "labor on" -- for as long as it takes to turn the human race into the human family, to make liberty and justice for all not just a pledge but a reality and to help bring the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.