EDITORIAL LABOR DAY 2006 WHAT ARE WE NOT-LABORING FOR?

TODAY'S holiday is a misnomer. The first Monday of September ought to be called something like ``Picnic Day'' or ``Lie Around and Do Nothing Day'' or at least ``Try Not to Labor Too Much Day.''

But calling this federal holiday ``Labor Day'' is misleading. For Americans, every day is a labor day of sorts. We live in a 24/7 society with pharmacies and dry cleaners and restaurants that never close, where people regularly work on Sunday and in the dead of night.

And even when we are off the clock, it's not like we are free from the job these days. Advances in communications mean many of us are always connected in some way to our work.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, the willingness of Americans to allow the edges around their work and personal lives to blur is a testament to the legendary American work ethic.

Other countries make fun of rat-racing Americans, but it's this ability to redefine ``work'' that has built the U.S. into the most creative, economically powerful nation in the world. Still, we must find ways to balance work and leisure, and not become slaves to our careers.

Once upon a time today's holiday's name was fitting enough, as it celebrated the laborers of the country and the unions that represented them with a single day to get paid and not work. When the holiday started in the late 1800s, many American workers endured abusive hours and long workweeks in dangerous and physically taxing jobs. A day of pay without work was something profoundly cherished.

But we've lost the understanding of that meaning. Now it designates the unofficial end of summer, or the long weekend of big sales at the department stores, or the last three-day hurrah before the cool of fall brings us back to our senses and out of our flip-flops.

But whatever it's called, this Labor Day is one for all of us workers to celebrate ourselves through an application of intense nonlabor. Enjoy.