[jrny]

Ping.

[AlbionGirl]

I have special affection for laborers because I come from a long line of them. But I do think that labor has, for the longest time, been viewed as something to get away from.

In my memory, it was not appreciated in the spiritual sense at all. It was a classification to be avoided. People who were above that station, while giving due Christian deference to the intrinsic value of the laborer, wuold have recoiled with horror should their child aspire to be no more than such.

If my perceptions are accurate, and I think they are, even and especially among Catholics, the laborer is tolerated but not truly admired or appreciated outside the sympathy factor.