Labor Day? No sweat

By Anna Seip

Several months ago, I started a new job as the editor at a small college. The human resources manager handed me a list of the employee holidays I’d receive as a new employee.

“We don’t get Labor Day off,” she said, “but you can certainly take a vacation day then.”

A vacation day on Labor Day? I liked the sound of that oxy-moron. I’d make sure to fit it into my schedule. Why isn’t Labor Day known as Vacation Day? It’s a whole day set aside to do anything but labor.

I always loved this holiday as a kid. You’d start the school year for a week and then immediately get a day off. As a kid, you never felt the need to actually do anything with these days off. But, that changes when you grow up. Our 24-hour society and endless to-do lists make even holiday weekends a time of do, do, do when what we really need is rest, rest, rest.

This is the time of year I feel compelled to clean out my closet, mostly because it’s filled with summer clothes that I haven’t worn all season. That pink sarong I planned to use as a beach cover-up? I never even made it to the beach this summer. The strappy sandals? They never looked right at the office. The linen skirts? Too much of a pain to iron. The capri pants? They made me look shorter and fatter. Cleaning out the closet suddenly sounds too much like labor, so I decided to leave it for some cold day in December.

That’s the beauty of Labor Day. It’s supposed to be different from other long weekends. On Memorial Day weekend, you honor veterans and put flowers on the graves of those who bravely served our country. The Fourth of July requires trips to the beach and parades. You’re expected to actually do something for those patriotic holidays. On Sept. 7, relaxing is the reason for the long weekend, but it’s tough to remember that.

In our house, we spend Labor Day weekend packing in as much summer as we can. My husband and I feel the pressure of having an answer Tuesday morning at the office when every colleague asks, “What did you do for Labor Day? What did you do?” Isn’t the whole weekend supposed to be about doing nothing? But, we put the kids in the car, go see a baseball game, go swimming at the lake or head to the amusement park—all the things that we’ve put off for months.

We also make a list of all things we want to do next summer. Go to a water park. Play more board games. Rent a cabin. Make lemonade from scratch. Grow a garden. Read more books. Take a boat ride. I always feel guilty that my family has spent too many pretty days indoors in the air-conditioning watching movies we’ve already seen. Soon enough, the weather will turn cold and we’ll be forced to stay inside. Only then will we miss the laziness of summer.

Sometime during the weekend, we get the hang of it. Just when I feel like we’re working—or laboring—to have fun, we settle into relaxation mode. At dusk, we sit in our lawn chairs and watch the town’s fireworks from our backyard. Ooohhh. Ahhhh. This is what Labor Day is all about: doing absolutely nothing and being blissfully happy about it.

Maybe the only way to truly appreciate summer is to celebrate its end.

Anna Seip will not be working on Sept. 7.

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