36. Work For Economic Development.

Plum Local IV ::: Part II

Community Investment

=== chapters 36 - 43 ===

=== look to right column for direct links to chapters ===

36. Work For Economic Development
Bob Komives
::

Why get a new brick
if I can dig up an old one?
This brick has lane three places in twenty years.
I dug it up twice,
laid it down twice--
each time thinking the brick work was done--
each time pleased with my work.
Even today, it did not displease me,
but it will please me more over here.

Why Get A New Brick?

Economic development is the work of life. My father liked to quote his Hungarian father: "Nincsen munka, nincsen sonka;" "No work; no ham." Perhaps a less literal but better translation is: "No work, no live." Both my grandfather, who repaired street cars, and my father, who repaired railroad cars, were speaking of physical, often-unpleasant work, the purposeful expenditure of energy. They were speaking of labor, the human effort that economists say turns capital into productive wealth. Yet, "work" has another meaning that I am sure was familiar even to my grandfather who spoke English as a second language and only outside his home. If brakes he had repaired were to show signs of failure on the street car taking his family down a steep hill to a Sunday picnic, "work" would have had the other obvious meaning: "If these brakes don't work, we die."

Work is function, effect, and, in physics, the application of force over a distance. Work is not brute labor. It does things. Most good students work hard to learn, but excellent teachers and parents know that much is taught through play. Play is every bit as good as work --if it works. I look around at nature and see much of it at play, yet I do not hesitate to describe an interesting flower or phenomenon as "nature at work." Science, art, and the Sunday picnic are human nature at work. I like to think that they have done as much for our economic development as have Monday in the office, Tuesday in the factory, or Wednesday on the farm. If you think not, I hope you will at least agree that they do work for our economic development.

:: Bob Komives, Fort Collins © 2006 :: Plum Local IV :: 36. Work For Economic Development. ::
With attribution these words may be freely shared, but permission
is required if quoted in an item for sale or rent

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