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On one of the last days of summer recess, before the daily grind of school started up again, our daughter Shark a proclaimed a "choreless" day for their two boys, telling them to relax, play games, watch TV, do whatever they wished.
Around the middle of the day, Lamppost Head told his mother, "I feel useless. I feel like I should be doing some kind of work."
I'm sorry, grandson. You got the work habit.
His brother was upset that they missed a family firewood work project. "You didn't leave any logs for me to split, Grandpa," The 747 complained.
Whether you call it a work ethic or habit, it's a real thing: as much a mental as a physical need to exert yourself to accomplish something worthwhile. I worked as a kid but I was lazy. When I went to college I felt restless, ill at ease. I finally realized I missed work.
Seed's three sons, Rufus, Bob and The Favorite, have it as well in varying ways and degrees. Rufus is working part-time at a bank while finishing his master's in cyber security and helping with firewood, mowing and so forth. The Favorite, whom I also call Chicken George, takes care of the family chicken flock among his daily chores, but chickens are much more to him than a source of eggs. He often cradles a favorite chicken in one arm while he mows the lawn. More about him below.
Bob, who just got his high school diploma and wants a career in the trades, has taken "work ethic" to new heights, working summers for a plumbing contractor while running his own mowing and landscaping business. This summer he had so much work he hired his brothers and cousins as crew.
When he applied to two area contractors, both immediately offered him employment. The fact that he built a log cabin from scratch was just one thing that impressed them. He is taking the job with the smaller firm which, though it pays less, will teach him all types of construction. He wants his own business someday.
Chicken George shows as well as raises chickens, and has educated himself about them. At last week's Hookstown Fair he swept all the top honors, winning champion and supreme champion in both roosters and hens, as well as supreme champion for showmanship. The accredited judge was highly complimentary of his knowledge and presentation.
My plan for this column today wasn't to brag about the grandsons. It was to express my extreme dislike for John Lennon's song "Imagine." I instantly turn off my car radio if it comes on.
Imagine, Lennon sang in 1971, a world with no countries, no possessions, no religion, no greed or hunger, no wars, a brotherhood of man.
One of my favorite music groups, Steely Dan, replied to Lennon in song: "Talkin' about a world where all is free, it just couldn't be, and only a fool would say that." Lennon's defenders say he was only being aspirational. What, you aspire for us to be like social insects, bees in a hive?
That was 55 years ago. Why dig it up now?
Because the air-headed crowd, with whom the song has remained popular, are now taking it seriously. It has become their national anthem, gaining new life with the rise of Democrat Socialists like New York Mayor Mamdani. They want to dump the Constitution and give free everything by soaking the rich.
Also disturbing is a recent poll showing only 25 percent of teenagers now work summer jobs, compared to about 75 percent back when Lennon wrote "Imagine." You don't graduate from high school and suddenly grow a work ethic. Parents allow children to spend their time in idleness, then worry what will become of them.
Imagine this, John Lennon fans: no plumber to fix your toilet, no one to be your doctor, dentist, or nurse, no one to grow food, no one to do any work at all because everybody gets paid the same whether they work or not, and you aren't allowed to earn more money than everyone else because it isn't fair.
"You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it," said Lincoln about slavery. Would Lennon's world be so different, including the need for masters?
I hope the "Imagine" crowd doesn't get in power and completely screw up this country, but even if they do, my grandsons will do just fine. They work.