I’ll Finally Be Able to Observe the Sabbath 

I have no affiliation with any organized religion. I could count on two hands the numbers of times I’ve been to a church or temple since the day of my Bar Mitzvah, some forty years ago. But in the midst of my typically American-late-modernity life I started to see the logic of observing a Sabbath day each week and I longed to do so.

Imagine a day of reliable peace and quiet; a day each week off the grids of schedules and streets. A day of only talk and walk, of hearing and feeling, of just home and family. Such desiderata! almost unimaginable, actually, given our hyper-mobile, over-stimulated, cyber-paced, urban-scaled reality.

And, in fact, during the years that are referred to as the “prime of life,” I was never able to do it, never able to set aside a day of rest even once a month ... no less once a week. The obligations and interests, the multitude of activities and relationships, seemed to press on every hour. A whole day uncommitted, unencumbered ... seemed unattainable.

I didn’t like that, I regretted it. I felt overwhelmed, frustrated, impotent, guilty - even immoral. The body needs rest. The life force needs rejuvenation. The spirit needs an oasis from the noise, hustle, bustle, tension, and work.

But. Just about every 24 hours was over-allocated. Five days a week the doing, going to, preparing for, and recovering from work-for-money employment dominated time from the hour of waking until the hour of resting after (a usually late) dinner. Then the family deserved attention. Then the other stuff demanded attention. The Real Work of changing the world because the world is insane had to be shoe-horned in late at night into the early morning hours making my own life insane. What needed to be done Monday through Friday never did get fully done, so the 48 weekend hours were always pre-committed. Oasis Not.

* * *

I’ll retire in about a year. I plan to pare and breathe and listen. I want to disengage from their cities and machines, from their pace and scale. I look forward to observing the Sabbath.

SW

[It’s hard for us as individuals to resist the forces of the Leviathan. It’s much easier to find sanity when we live within the context of “collective willpower” . . . in community.]

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