As a kid Sundays were clearly about church, eating with family and constraining playing with the neighbor kids. Certainly there was no shopping and even gas stations were closed. I'm talking about the 1950s in southern Minnesota, Albert Lea to be direct. Everyone seemed to go to church then, in a wide variety of denominations. Our neighbors across the street went to a bar in Manchester, a town with nothing but a bar. I can remember their kids saying "we go to the bar in Manchester" when I complained about going to church. In recent times, although I've not kept track, but I may have frequented more bars than churches on Sunday. Assuredly I've worked more Sundays than anything which is a major contrast with my youth. Most of those working Sundays were for the 27-year gig. I'm not doing that or anything like that again, that which is primarily in the pursuit of money or compensation.
Today everything is open except things like dentists and car dealers but I'm sure there must be a place somewhere where I could have had a dental cleaning and checkup if I wished. Now we seem to work all the time and even the big holidays have stores and venues for shopping and buying frequently more open. What if Amazon was closed on Sunday? Or if you could only buy certain goods on Sunday? It gave us a day or rest and reflection. For a while I've been thinking about an electronic gizmo sabbatical. Maybe I should stay away from computers one day a week or not carry my cell phone. For two days, including today, I've not carried my cell phone, not because of making that sabbatical choice but because I took it out of my pocket while working at the computer.
Over the past two days I've probably put in 10-12 hours of heads done computer time, primarily on accounting and tax challenges. The sabbatical choice could not include the computer because I just cannot write as quickly by hand any more and I want to keep writing and putting a few thoughts together. That's what my work going forward will be.
Monday is Martin Luther King day. It warrants reflection for disadvantaged and those the subject of all ranges of discrimination. We're not the kind of country today that any of us wish to have. I'm headed up north later in the day to work on snow removal, re-starting that renovation and to work on some craft/art projects. Progress is being made there. Most of our back yard oaks were recently removed. In the process of that we needed to take down a nice sized black cherry. Most of that will be carved into spoons and bowls. It's nice carving and beautiful. Over the years I've turned a lot of trees into firewood but turning even a small log into usable art is tremendously rewarding. It's the kind of work that I want to do and it's the kind of work that would be acceptable and appropriate on Sundays, now and long ago.
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