Theme: Labor Law

The laziness

When I was little, my brother and I were very lazy. We invented excuses for not doing our homework or helping with housework. Physical activities didn't appeal to us either. We didn't want to go to school. We wasted our time, bored, unwell, doing nothing.

Our parents evidently resented this and waited for the right moment to encourage us to reform ourselves.

One day, after lunch, when my brother and I were about to start another long rest, my mother called us to escort her on a short walk along our street.

We didn't want to go, but she gave us no choice, and, despite our regrets, we had to walk with her.

When we passed in front of an empty lot, my mother asked my brother to tell her what he saw there.

My brother, even without understanding my mother's intention, described the land as an ugly place, full of garbage, with a bad smell, insects, rusty metals, and broken glass, with nothing to take advantage of.

We continued walking and my mother asked me to notice if any other land was like that. We walked a little further and then headed back home.

When we arrived, I said no. Only the vacant lot was in poor condition. All the others were occupied by houses, with gardens, garages, backyards... One of them even had a vegetable garden and an orchard.

Mom, then, with a serious look, asked us:

- Why do you think so much rubbish has accumulated in the vacant lot?

- Well, Mom, because it's empty! – we responded almost together.

- Exactly! - said my mother – it’s easy to see what happens to a land that is empty, without being worked, without any purpose. What you may not be realizing is that the same thing happens in people's lives. Those who do not have a good purpose, do not work on some useful tasks, make room for everything that is useless and harmful, such as addictions, evils, ignorance, and discomfort, to be installed in their minds and in their days. On the opposite, the man who is a worker transforms, over time and with his effort, his life into a beautiful land, well used and happy.

My mother didn't need to say anything else. My brother and I looked at each other and understood well what she wanted to tell us.

After that, we no longer refuse the tasks that we were supposed to perform.

We were often lazy in our lives, but the memory of that wasteland and my mother's teachings always encouraged us to fill our days with good accomplishments.

Adaptation of the text “A Ociosidade” from the book “E para o resto da vida...” by Wallace Leal V. Rodrigues.

marcelapradacontato@gmail.com