Why I’m Especially Grateful for Blue Collar Workers
A few weeks ago, as Hurricane Dorian was bearing down on the Bahamas and menacing my own state of Florida, I started pondering who would most be needed to rescue and rebuild whichever areas got hit. Doctors would be important, of course, as well as supply-chain experts ensuring that crucial food and water get where they need to go.
But really, the most valuable people in situations like these are blue-collar workers — the cops, fire rescue, roofers, tree cutters, and handymen, not to mention those brave guys who always appear after a natural disaster to save stranded, desperate people stuck in their wrecked homes.
Soon after, I got on an airplane to visit family, and I found myself paying extra attention to all the maintenance workers, fuel transporters, and baggage handlers without whom my trip would not have been possible.
Many of us aim to practice gratitude these days. I write about the topic frequently, and it’s a core theme in my latest novel, Warrior Won. My spiritual friends and I often thank one another, and give a nod to our beautiful homes and gorgeous gardens, the delicious food available in stores, and the amazing cars and roads (not to mention airplanes) that expand our world.
But now I’m putting more of my focus on the people behind all these things, acknowledging the carpenters and masons, the lawn-mower makers and grass cutters, the truckers, factory workers, construction crews, and others. Sometimes these people can seem invisible, but they are absolutely crucial to my life.
In the U.S., blue-collar jobs have plummeted over the years. People who work with their hands now make up only 14 percent of employees, compared with the more than 71 percent who toil in the so-called service sector. Sure, service is important — and it can be hard work, too — but, perhaps because there are so few people doing it, manual labor is easy to ignore or underrate. I’m not going to do that any longer.
In truth, nobody would really suffer without the novels or magazine articles I spend my days writing, however useful I hope they are. But society would surely grind to a halt without the men and women who make things happen at the most fundamental level.
Not long ago, during a stormy afternoon, I glanced out the window of my dry, snug home. The rain was pounding, but three men were standing atop my neighbor’s roof, continuing to load the tiles needed to replace the leaks. These guys were soaked to their core, but they persevered until every last tile was in place. Other blue-collar workers will soon be repairing my own home’s aging roof.
Without blue-collar workers, my life would not be as good as it is. When I recently told a friend I had painted the exterior of my home, I had to clarify that I didn’t actually wield the brushes: a team of great guys were the ones lugging the paint, climbing the massive ladders, and working under the blazing sun; meanwhile, I sat inside sipping iced tea, exerting no more effort in my own work than it takes to move fingers over my computer keyboard.
Some other interactions I’ve had with blue-collar Americans of late, for which I belatedly extend my gratitude: One repaired the hot-water tank in a rental apartment I own. Another replaced my broken kitchen faucet. When my lawn this summer practically grew inches every hour, it wasn’t me pushing the mower that kept it trimmed and attractive.
Recently, a sweet blue-collar guy delivered a new front-hall bench I’d ordered, manufactured in a factory (yes, by blue-collar workers, although sadly, some displacing robots were no doubt also involved) so I didn’t have to chop and sand wood myself to have a place to sit.
My white-collar husband and I did have to put it together, because we had decided not to hire the blue-collar assembly man the company offered. As we struggled to hammer, bolt, and screw the various, confusing bits (I even cut my finger in the process), I thought about the error we’d made not paying a competent person to do it.
Hats off to the experienced blue-collar assembler who would have been much better at this, but who didn’t get the job because I had assumed the task would be easy. I won’t be making that mistake again.
Meryl Davids Landau is the author of the new mindfulness/yoga novel Warrior Won, which was the gold medal winner in inspirational fiction at the Living Now Book Awards. Midwest Book Review calls it “one of the strongest spiritual women’s fiction pieces to appear in recent years.” Learn more at MerylDavidsLandau.com or on Amazon.
