Good point, Vanessa. My husband, who is now self-employed, has often been employed as an Exempt Employee. When I asked him what that meant, he replied, "Exempt from Fair Labor laws."

Ellen - Sorry to add another book for you. That's my problem too. I read one and find 3 I want to read. My reading list is about 24 books long right now.
Kevin,sorry about your loss. Having lost my wife earlier this year I can relate to what those left behind is going thru.
I realy liked the way that Lieberman connected work and Sabbath together. I know I am trying to align my views to be in sync with what the Bible says but not always successful.
This is a good discussion by everyone. That's why I love The Point, not only for the articles but also for all of you.

Well said, Ellen and Lee. Thank you both.
And I shall not just meet Peng some day again, but all of you here as well! (although I fear I must apologize in advance-- I have a suspicion that, for the first ten thousand years or so, I may just be gazing at our Lord in awe, wonder, reverence, and love, and it may take some effort to wrench my eyes away from Him!)

In Systems of Survival the writer wrote that industriousness is definitely a virtue for someone who is involved in a producing vocation. For someone involved in ruling or protecting it can be a vice; because a productive person is always producing whereas if hypothetically a "guardian" runs out of enemies-if there are no more dragons troubling the village for St George to slay-he cannot continue working without being destructive.

For this reason a "guardian" is often better employed in some other activity then work per se. This can be play or practice or both; patronizing arts, listening to bards, martial games, etc. Or just visiting a cop bar or whatever the equivalent is in a given culture. This is not so much laziness as it is standing by.

In some societies there is a rather hostile relation between the protective and the producing classes with protectors being snobby or even tyrannical and producers being oversullen or overservile. In our society that is less the case and we can live side by side or switch roles(like the proverbial farmer with a rifle over his fireplace).

At the same time there are some signs of the harm done by misplaced industriousness. Sometimes I have wondered if a large part of the unfortunate expansion of the Federal government, is just projecting the priorities of the producing world onto the protective. It is forgotten that when there is no threat, or the threat is something that is outside of a given protector's jurisdiction, sometimes the right thing to do is just to stop. Andy Griffth knew that. When there was no crime in Mayberry he just went around paying good-natured social calls on his eccentric neighbors.

Sorry I've been slow to respond to you, Kevin, about the death of your friend. I grieve with you and your fellow church members, but I also rejoice that you will see Peng again.

I've been slow to respond because I've felt conflicted. Twice, very recently, I've been asked to go outside the USA to countries I consider unsafe. The first offer, to a Muslim nation, I turned down flat. The second, to a nation with an extremely high crime rate where tourists can be prey, I'm still considering. I survived Jamaica, and Johannesburg twice - and, come to think of it, D.C. (onetime "murder capital of the USA") several times. Still, I wonder...

So I've responded slowly because by no means do I want to detract from the tragedy of your loss. At the same time, putting "work" and "death" together does add some perspective to our responses to Dennis's question.

If Rolley were around at the moment, he might wax poetic about "the eternal Sabbatical at the end of our sweat-faced toil" or something like that. Alas, I'm too ham-fisted with my poetry to compose anything sufficiently lyrical to be worthy of this topic.

So, Dennis, I think this is my best answer for you: when work is a mission and a blessing, it still vanishes like the morning dew at sunrise. When work is evil or a drag, it is at best a momentary and light affliction. Either way, it's not nearly as important as I've been treating it.

Kevin, the reporter certainly did a lovely job with her articles. It sounds like human translators are still better than computer program translators -- at least for evangelical English to Chinese.

My father died at the age of 73 after a year of battling cancer. Grieving an expected death is hard enough, but grieving an unexpected death is far worse. My first cousin, who was also my godmother, died unexpectedly at the age of 30 when I was 14. In hindsight, I wish my parents had known enough to seek some counseling for me. However, my mourning of my godmother who lived far way from me can't compare to losing one's father at a young age. God's ways are incomprehensible to me, as the internet in incomprehensible to an ant. Praise God I am able, by his grace, to trust him with the unfolding story of our lives.

An article about the memorial service for Peng:
http://albany.patch.com/articles/peng-yue-memorial-fills-ocean-view-gym

One amusing detail: our pastor typed out his entire mini-sermon, and then-- trying to be considerate to Peng's Chinese family members-- he ran it all through Google Translator, and printed out the result to give to them. According to other Chinese church members who saw it, the translation was, "hmm, a little odd."

Thank you, Ellen. The memorial service was last night, and my guess is that 40% of those attending were from the community, and not [yet] believers. Among the things we are praying is that the Lord will work through the death and the testimony of Peng to draw people to Himself. The percentage of those who attend Bible-following churches in this area is quite small, probably less than 2%, and yet Jesus to plant this church in this area seven years ago, and we believe that He is nowhere near accomplishing all that He has had in mind to do through this and other churches here.

Kevin, I'm so sorry to hear about the death of your friend. Death and separation are hard to bear.

C S Lewis wrote an essay about the subject called "good works and good work" about the importance of producing something that is good in itself. Despite over sympathy toward ancient occupational snobbery against commerce(which was misplaced as merchants produce time and space by moving resources where and when they are desired) it had worthwhile things to say.

I, too, am becoming convinced about the need for real rest, real Sabbath, and I am trying to take mine on Saturdays.
I've found myself especially drained recently, because our Friday night church Home Group suffered a loss when one member drowned on Labor Day:
http://albany.patch.com/articles/drowned-albany-man-was-gentle-giant-devoted-father
It has been emotionally quite compelling, first because his kids' welfare is still up in the air, and second because his family has come from China for the memorial service, and I believe that for some of them, this will be their first exposure to a Christian service. I feel great responsibility-- perhaps too much, perhaps I'm not doing it right-- but in any case, on Saturdays lately I am in huge need of real rest.
(I remember hearing that Ronald Reagan, while governor of California, had a great line about John Lindsay, then Mayor of NYC. When told that Lindsay said, "If being President of the United States is the hardest job in the world, then being Mayor of New York City is second-hardest," Reagan is said to have responded, "The way he does it, it is!" I always wonder how applicable that is to how I live my Xn life-- is it hard 'cos it's the way I'm doing it??)

As the father of two active preschoolers, I have become much more aware of the value of the Sabbath (for me as a Christian, Sunday) as a day of REST, of the physical variety. I frankly think the Puritans were wrong in overemphasizing time in explicit worship (Westminster Shorter Catechism #60: "spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy"). I need a nap on Sunday afternoon as much as, if not more than, the kids (of course, the only way I can get one is if they do).

Oh, and Milord Lee, you really think other books would push Miss Jane Austen off of my reading list??? *rolls the eyes* I have a brand new Annotated Sense and Sensibility. Don't think I didn't notice your cheekiness!

Well, Jason, they get far more money than we do, but I bet we get *far* more satisfaction from librarianship and mothering than lawyers do from facilitating divorce.

When you think about it Ellen, being a mom-or a librarian, is a FAR more dignified job then being say, a divorce lawyer despite the fact that they get more then we get at those respective jobs.

Milord Lee, I've already purchased _Monsters From the Id_ after reading about it in a previous post of yours. I just haven't yet put it on my reading list, along with _America Alone_ and _After America_. So many books...

Instead of transamerican flights, I simply need to bundle the kids off to school and take care of all the other chores of running a home to be able to have quiet hours with which to read. Kevin, running a home often feels like drudgery, so having an intellectually meaty reading list is something for me to anticipate with pleasure.

I could easily view being a mom and homemaker as being The Maid. -- I've never viewed being a wife thus, in spite of misguided women telling society otherwise. -- In fact, one year my daughter dressed up as a princess so I dressed as a maid. At one time I used to think to myself, "who made *me* the maid?!?" with anger and frustration rolling around in my head. And I've realized that I am to be a servant; Jesus came to serve not to be served, He calls me to do the same. However, it's rather fun on Sun Valley chairlifts to answer the question, "What do you do?" with the reply, "I run a Character Development Laboratory."

("BTW, is Mary Wollstonecraft also the author of "Frankenstein"? Maybe the third book in her trilogy was "The Rights of Monsters"?")

Kevin, Wollstonecraft was actually the *mother* of the author of Frankenstein. Dear Old Mom helped start a women's liberation and sexual liberation movement, and her daughters were the "beneficiaries" of it. (Sleeping with your own sister along with your husband - ick!) "Frankenstein" is a rather thinly veiled allegory of the monster created when libertinism was loosed on an unprepared populace. (The populace rightly took up firebrands and pitchforks.) See (sigh, Milady; here I go again, adding to your list) "Monsters from the Id: The Rise of Horror in Fiction and Film" by E. Michael Jones.

While you're at it, Kevin, see Paul Johnson's "Intellectuals" for how many names who are so highly thought of were complete jerks. Wollstonecraft should have made the list.

And doggone it, Dennis Babish, now I have this picture stuck in my head of the original "Frankenstein" movie, the scene during the lightning storm with the Doctor running around pulling levers and Igor cowering, but the soundtrack has been replaced by "Whistle While You Work" as sung by the Seven Dwarves. I.e., not all work without rest is purposeless work - work that is evil in intent is likely to be performed maniacally. Hence the incongruity of whistling a happy tune.

Hence the reason people like Breitbart may be correct, and therefore have useful things to say, but their intense causes should be treated with caution.

Dennis, work allows me to fund my ongoing addiction to BreakPoint.

(I know, I know: the phrase is supposed to be "... my ongoing addiction to food, clothing and shelter" - but my version is more personally appropriate.)

I'll read Lieberman's book after I clear several many others off my list. Sometimes reading is like work, but with lousier pay (for some of us). The benefits are nice, though. ;-)

Milady M (yup, you're stuck with it), I'd commend Andrew Breitbart's "Righteous Indignation" to you, but for four things: first, it's peppered with the routine vulgarities of someone who does not feel that swearing is inappropriate. Second, it's primarily the middle chapters that are important, especially to someone trying to recover from a liberal education - but to understand them, you need to have read the prior chapters. Third, it's the kind of book that can (like those of Andrew McCarthy; what's in a (first) name, anyway?) get a person emotionally upset but provide them no outlet - thereby making them frustrated, or worse, get them more involved in politics than in worship.

Fourth, it might push Miss Austen off your list of twelve. ;-)

That said, it does an amazing job of explaining why secular schools indoctrinate even more and educate even less than sacred ones do (to borrow Gina's phrase). And why the mainstream media continues it. And what the ultimate goal is, once the public has been indoctrinated.

But, caveat lector.

And FYI, I find that cross-country plane rides, of the 4+ hours variety, work wonders for whittling down the list. That is, provided you can stay awake after getting up early and rushing to the airport and FINDING THAT ATLANTA HAS SHUT DOWN MOST OF ITS FREEWAY SYSTEM THAT MORNING, JUST TO MAKE IT ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO CATCH MY FLIGHT!!... oh, sorry. That was Saturday; I really, really needed my Sabbath yesterday.

Plus a nap on the plane. I'm always afraid I'll fall asleep and drop my eReader, breaking it. Plane floors are worse than sand. Maybe not water, though.

I fear that if I had a reading-list as deep as Ellen's, I would view THAT as work! (BTW, is Mary Wollstonecraft also the author of "Frankenstein"? Maybe the third book in her trilogy was "The Rights of Monsters"?)

More seriously, I'll go along with much of what Jason has written. I don't know how women feel, but I do think that the way we men are made, if we're not working, not contributing, the sense of uselessness arises.

It's always nice to find someone with a reading list as insane -- er, as full as mine. High five, Ellen!