Labor Day and the End of Summer

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It's Labor Day and I'm taking the rest of the day off, but I always like to start this post with a reminder of what the holiday represents. Over the years, for most of us, it's become one more great excuse to fire up the grill, bring out the hot dogs and beer and toast the end of the summer.

From Newsweek.com:

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the holiday is “a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.” Labor Day is a “yearly national tribute” to the “contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of our country.”

Wandering around YouTube I found this short video from History.com:

Here's my challenge: Labor Day is a North American holiday celebrated in the US and Canada, but I have readers, mostly photographers from all over the world. So, wishing everybody a Happy Labor Day isn't appropriate.

• To all my American and Canadian friends and readers, wishing you a great Labor Day.
• To readers and friends outside North America, I'll wish you a terrific Monday and the start of a new week. Although my Japanese/Asia Pacific readers have already wrapped up their Monday and are about to head into Tuesday!
  
• To friends, associates and the people in the communities in the flood areas in Texas, this certainly isn't the Labor Day you anticipated a few weeks ago. Sheila and I are sending our prayers along with the hope that waters are going down. We're also hoping as many of you as possible are finding those rarest moments of joy to finding more things dry than destroyed. Harvey's destruction has been record-breaking, but so is the growing support and empathy from around the world.

And, if you're outside Texas, but still looking for ways you can help, I shared this post the other day. Click on the banner below to link to any of the five different non-profits.