I sit here today on the 4th enjoying the day off. I have spent a little morning coffee time doing some reading and writing. A little time with the family putzing around the house and this will lead up to burgers this evening and maybe a little fireworks watching.

I work hard during the work week but I realize that the majority of my work is knowledge work. I deal with solving problems and driving projects.

As I drove home from getting coffee and while sitting with the family two things struck me. There were crews I passed working on roofing (we recently had a hail storm cause a lot of damage, even my roof had to be replaced) and the yard guys are here doing our lawn today.

These crews work hard!

The roofing guys showed up at our home at 6:30 in the morning two days in a row and worked until 8pm replacing our roof. The lawn crew in thirty minutes will do my yard and two homes next to mine and then move on to their next location – all while I am enjoying the holiday day off.

I grew up with families that took care of business around their homes. We mowed our own lawns and fixed most of what happened around the house (except for the really big damage based jobs).

I must admit that I am a bit ashamed of myself in this regard. My father-in-law continued to mow his own lawn until he was in his 80’s and simply could not any longer. My wife’s uncle is 85 and drives three hours to their second home to mow his lawn.

Granted I put in a lot of hours. It is not uncommon for me to post a 12+ hour day that is mentally exhausting. However, I have begun to recognize that as I get older letting others do the hard manual work comes too easy. I now pay for work around the house instead of tacking it myself. This is probably why I have not been very diligent in keeping up on any type of work out as well.

The time I used to spend in the garage building cars and bikes has diminished greatly over the years as well. Of course doing so in the dead of summer in Texas heat can be brutal, but I used to do it every weekend. Now I am lucky to get out there once a month and tinker around. My garage full of tools goes largely unused these days.

Additionally, I am humbled by the hard work these guys on these crews do. Listen, I grew up in small Texas towns where I once spent a summer picking rocks up out of a guys field. Me and a buddy got paid, basically, minimum wage (and back then that was not much) to spend an eight hour day five days a week clearing this guys field. Looking back it was a study in futility. The guy’s field sat on top of a shale hill that effectively would push rocks to the surface with every rain. It was hot, back breaking and slightly dangerous work. If you are unaware a shale hill in Texas breeds two things other than rocks; rattlesnakes and scorpions. No shorts on this job and good gauntlet gloves.

On this 4th while we celebrate hard fought freedom I am also tipping my hat to these hard working crews all around us. No matter where you sit on the topic of immigration, it is the immigrant worker by and large who support much of the manual labor pool. Additionally, I have a buddy who works as an electrician. He was telling me how hard it was to find people willing to go into the field, along with air conditioner repair men and other manual labor jobs like this. People just don’t want to work that hard in adverse conditions it seems.

The American Dream seems to now be primarily focused upon the corporate world and cubicle farms. We have traded physical exhaustion for mental exhaustion. The problem with this is that physical exhaustion one can recover from with rest. Mental exhaustion often cannot be recovered so easily. Simple rest does not always do the trick.

This is why many of us need to take note of the value of hard manual labor. Exercise can help but the value of getting out and doing something with one’s hands and body assuages the mind and soul. It takes us out of our mental work-a-day world and provides something with a singular focus and, typically, an outcome. When done we have something to look upon as complete. If you work as a knowledge worker you understand that this sense of accomplishment is not nearly as prevalent. Finishing one task or project just leads into the next. Nothing “feels” finished. There is rarely a senses of accomplishment, just a never ending stream of projects.

Thus, hard work needs a balance. If you work hard with your hands you need rest. If you work hard with your mind you often need hard work with your hands before you rest. Allow yourself to go to bed fully and physically exhausted instead of just mentally tired and stressed.

I think this is why I enjoy being on a motorcycle so much. When I go from one air conditioned space to another in an air conditioned vehicle we experience little of the actual world. On the bike you experience the world around you and you appreciate the times indoor more.

The same is true with hard work, when we experience the physical effort we appreciate more the outcome of our activities and relish more in the accomplishment.