Why do you labor?

Henry David Thoreau
Walden

I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres,when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? . . . The portionless, who struggle with no such unnecessary inherited encumbrances, find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh.

Who made you a serf of the soil? Why do you labor? Do you pick up plow as an inherited lot in life? Or do you have a conscious purpose? Thoreau later goes on to give his take on the question but what is your answer?

I labor to fulfill my covenant obligations to provide for my family, help those in need, and build up the Kingdom of God on Earth. I also view my labor as an opportunity to serve my fellow man and refine myself.