Great post over at Virtual Mirage on the virtues of hard work.

I hear that!

I had the good fortune as a kid to be friends with a guy my age who had a business of his own cutting firewood.   I'd go up on weekends after school and help, and the idea of working from dawn till after dark became a normal thing.  It certainly does teach self reliance, pride in your ability to work hard, and how to see and meet a challenge.

I'll also never forget the adventures the two of us planned, the challenges we set for ourselves, and the fun we had trying our best to meet those challenges.  Sometimes we did, sometimes not, but it was all good.

Like LL says, it's truly too bad the government is trying it's best to make us all part time workers, and keep the kids adolescents until their late twenties.  We were wielding roaring chainsaws in our teens, falling big trees, and piloting old rickety trucks overloaded with firewood up and down narrow mountain roads at all hours.  There was nothing better.  I wish sometimes I was still at it, although the body doesn't survive for too long at that kind of work.

Our youth is really missing out on those kinds of life lessons.