Uplifting Words: To tradespeople and essential workers
TO TRADESPEOPLE
You are the backbone of our economy.
To our electricians, painters, carpenters, plumbers, pipefitters, welders, heavy equipment operators and technicians, automotive service technicians, motorcycle mechanics, tool & die makers, millwrights, metal fabricators, landscape horticulturalists, cooks, hairstylists; to any CC readers engaged in the skilled trades as a means to earn a living. Fortunately, most of you in these sectors of construction, transportation, manufacturing and service have been able to continue work through the pandemic. Also fortunately the incidence of COVID-19 infection has been very low among the skilled trades. We are so blessed to live in a country with a vibrant economy with lots of safety regulations and infrastructures that mitigate the chance of illness and injury.
You are the backbone of our economy, providing for our safety in a myriad of ways that we often take for granted. Sewer backed up? Electrical shortage? Moving into a new home? You have continued to work throughout the pandemic – in the early days, when most other workplaces were shut down, and continuing even as infection numbers skyrocketed during the second wave. You have also faced increased risks because of the pandemic, often as unsung heroes. We are grateful for the important work you do.
John Joosse, Institute for Christian Studies Board Chair
and Ian DeWaard, Christian Labour Association of Canada
To Essential Workers
Human beings are capable of incredible things: the creation of art, sending rockets into space, contemplating the sublime and divine, and creating vaccines that can save billions from sickness and death. But before all of that can happen, we need to eat, we need to dispose of waste, we need to clean ourselves, and we need sleep. Providing the means of eating, cleaning, shelter, and the transport and infrastructure required to get those things to us is essential work. It has always been thus. And it will be thus, forever and ever. Perhaps because it’s so basic, like gravity, many forget the work it takes to make this happen. We forget what a wonder it is. But if you do that work – if you stock shelves at the grocery store, or dispose of the garbage every week, or clean the floors at a hospital, or keep the water flowing at an apartment building – you never forget. It’s your life. And, underappreciated by the world as it is, it’s a good life. It’s a good life because it provides and sustains life. In that regard, it mirrors the constant providence of God himself. Every turn of a wrench, every SKU put through the till, every bum wiped, every sweep of a broom, is a small act of providence. I, for one, am grateful. And it’s gratifying to see the world begin to sense the importance of your work too. Thank you, and God bless you.
Brian Dijkema
Vice President
of External Affairs, Cardus
Find even more uplifting words here.
