My hands are soft today. I work behind a desk in an office in a controlled temperature environment. But I cannot drive by a roofing crew on a hot day and thank God that I am lucky enough to earn my bread by my brain and not my brawn.
I spent the better part of four years in the USN working on a carrier’s flight deck or out of doors, and gained a healthy respect for those who have to do it.
People like the soy boy who wrote this article, on the other hand...no, THAT other hand!
Most of my jobs besides early in life required the mind and body. I did a few hard construction years with the older carpenters telling me to go back to school or earn a bad back.
Carrier deck of an Aircraft carrier? Yeah that’s harsh. Older I got the less I got calloused.
But I tell you, working on a farm and a ranch was hard sometimes mundane but I’m glad I did it. In my older age( 60’s) I have a ton of respect for hard work and both ranching and farming require an adept mind plus the callouses. But like you, I’m glad I was able to use my mind later on because my body would have been broken by age thirty.