Journalier

Awhile ago I was doing my genealogy and found some details on the French side of my family living in Canada, the Quebecois part.  Most of the records are church records from the local Roman Catholic parish but there are some government records too.  One of the government records had the occupation of one of my relatives as a journalier.  I thought, "Wow that is so cool.  I wonder what a journalier is?"  A fur trader that plowed the unnamed back waters of the Canadian north, with a canoe full of beaver pelts?  A craftsman using his skills to make useful artifacts for home or business?  Is it like a lawyer?  So I looked it up in the Petite Larousee (French-English dictionary.)  It means a day laborer.  Just a common hired man.  A peasant.  At first I was disappointed but then I thought I guess that is the family lot.  Most people's lot really.

I know Abraham Lincoln said "God must love the common man, he made so many of them."  Okay Abe, but you were the president of the United States, not that common at all.  Still, what am I to think?  Is it a shame to be a common man?  Does it betray a lack of character or ambition?  A very modest ability?  Or is it a noble thing? 

I've read Ecclesiates but wasn't very satisfied with Solomon's view on man's lot in life:  he thinks that being wise is good but overall concludes that everything is meaningless.  John Lennon sings about the Working Class Hero but the picture he paints is rather bleak.  I think I much prefer Leo Tolstoy's view of the peasant class in Two Pilgrims.  Have you read it?  You can hear it on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzly25GUlBo and I would definitely recommend it.  It's a little long (35 minutes) but well worth it.  It is a classic and written by Tolstoy, a master.

Having thought about it a lot I think it's that old passage from James 1: 27

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Yeah, the purpose of life I do believe is to learn this.