After  being expelled from paradise, mortals are delivered by hard LABOR and thereafter have to LABOR to survive. It may be of interest to expose ideas inherent in LABOR from a variety of perspectives.

Laborious Survival.

In the constellation of LABOR are included ideas of pain - contortion - tort - torture, collapse - lapse - prolapse, obstetric - obstacles, nativity - natal - neonatal - nationalism, parity - parturition ... as well as work - work - werk - erg - energy. 

Product of Labor.

Prolific Proletariat.

The medical vistas of LABOR impinge on mother and are explored elsewhere. Here it suffices to note that the JOB or TRADE of OSBSTetricians is not to be OBSTinate but to help women in labor by removing OBSTacles to parturition. The same stress on TOIL or removal of roadblocks is found in Spanish given as TRABA and TRABAjo for obstacle and work.

Robot Robota.	Disabled on Disability.

TRADE and TRABAJO extend toward TRIPaliare, TRIPaty, TRUDno, TRUD, which in Latin, Ukrainian and Spanish illustrate that TOIL is not only hard but that it can also be a torture as when imposed by necessity or rulers who impose forced labor.

LABi links LABOR with LABile and LAPsus which extends to proLAPSE and coLLAPSE as if to point out that hard work can be detrimental to health.

Collapsing from Toiling.

WORK, werg or WERK in German should remind scientists that not all work can be reduced to ERG and enERGy. Biologic studies show that mental work or "cerebration" does not increase the consumption of calories.

ROB is perhaps the most provocative in the cluster of ideas about LABOR. ROBOT from ROB, RAB, ROBOTa, RABOTa, RABUvaty in Ukrainian and Russian point to ROBBERY and TOIL, SERF, SLAVE, and PILLAGE. The reaction of RABOTeurs or ROBOTniki or workers in French and Ukrainian against ROBOT machines and ROBBERY by machinations by profiteering global corporations inflame labor politics - at least since the time of Karl Marx.

Labor Politics.

The labor rights of shipwrights and other "wrights" or skilled workers continue to be undermined not only by ROBOT machines but also by policies of political agents protecting Corporate interest masked as "compassionate conservatism". The link of RAB or slave with ROB and ROBBERY may have a poetic poignancy since the toil of laborers, so it seems, is failing to benefit them - there is ample evidence of spreading poverty among working classes and growing concentration of economic and political power in fewer and fewer hands. "To large to fail" (meaning, public rescue of mega-private venture capitalists) is a dream realized for those who planned and benefited from deregulations and made profits from collapsing banks and industries. The nation declined in terms of economic power and faces a crisis manifested as pollution, failing schools, poor health and unemployment. Some could conclude that such are the fruits of "compassionate conservatism" - a ploy to ROB ROBOTniks or LABORers without "compassion" of their "American Dream" - to obscure such realities, a coalition of  "conservative" Christians and politically active evangelicals funded by anonymous corporate donors, divert workers attention to emotional issues like "gun, abortion, gay" and other "rights" as themes to be vented during "Tea Parties" which are quite nasty if compared with the "Flora" Parties in ancient Rome described next.   

Testy Protests Point to Testicles

In Rome, the festival for FLORA was celebrated the first of May but later was expanded to a six day feast starting on April 28 called "Floralia" in honor of Flora as well as "Primavera" or Spring. In fact, the whole month of APRil was dedicated to Flora - it was then when flowers "opened" or "APeRire" in Latin. It was also then that birds started to sing love songs beckoning the end of sterile winter and the return of Persephone from Hades or Hell, a signal that the fertility of Gea or Earth Mother was restored.

April Flowers for Floralia.

After "socialist" and labor organizations met at the second Socialist International Congress held in Paris in 1889, Floralia became "labor day". Soon after, every industrial country except United States and Canada celebrated Labor Day.

In 1894 the United States Congress decreed a legal "Labor Day" holiday to be celebrated every first Monday of September and the festivity expanded from a purely "labor" celebration to a celebration by all.

Pan (Bread) Nourishes All