National Heroes’ Day

26th August

‘This business of petty inconvenience and indignity, of being kept waiting about, of having to do everything at other people’s convenience, is inherent in working-class life. A thousand influences constantly press a working man down into a passive role. He does not act, he is acted upon. He feels himself the slave of mysterious authority and has a firm conviction that ‘they’ will never allow him to do this, that, and the other. Once when I was hop-picking I asked the sweated pickers (they earn something under sixpence an hour) why they did not form a union. I was told immediately that ‘they’ would never allow it. Who were ‘they’? I asked. Nobody seemed to know, but evidently ‘they’ were omnipotent.’

The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell

Celebrate the unsung, ‘real’ heroes; the transformers, the daily magicians, the correctors who realign and wipe your daily slate clean. Acknowledge and respect the diligent workers your lives would not function without. Greet and thank your equals, never assume they don’t qualify for your time.