March 24 – Rest

When I was a child I thought Sunday afternoons were a form of torture by boredom. Kids didn’t go out and play with their friends because Sunday was for family-time. In our house, that meant watching our parents take naps.
Garrison Keillor wrote that he remembered his father on Sunday afternoons, lying on the couch dozing with a paperback volume of scripture commentary in his hand. 
For some conservative protestants, the sabbath is meant to be completely devoted to God. So reading scripture is good, and I suppose scripture commentaries would be fine too. For these Christians, the sabbath is a very serious day.
Play is not permitted. Adults in Scotland and Ireland have memories of playground swings being chained up to prevent them from being used.
For Jews, work is forbidden, as the Torah mandates, and work is interpreted in some ways that surprise us. For example, everyone walks to Shabbat services because driving a car is forbidden. Meanwhile, gentiles all go out for Sunday drives.
I had a roommate in college who would tape a sign on the bathroom wall each Friday to remind me not to turn the light switch off. If I did, she would have to use the bathroom in the dark – turning on a light switch is classified as work. On the other hand, lovemaking is a good thing – a mitzvah – on the sabbath.
I sort of think we should be able to determine for ourselves what is restful and what would make our sabbath more meaningful. But I suppose that’s a very American sentiment, isn’t it? My sabbath, my choice.
Nonetheless, there is something lovely about a whole community doing the same thing at the same time. Like Fourth of July parades. Like church bells ringing on Christmas Eve. Like “The Big Read,” when a town chooses a book they will all read together.
And that’s kind of how it still is, a little bit, on Sundays – when everything is a little bit quieter, everything feels a little bit calmer. So, even those who are working, might feel the difference and feel the rest.
Photo: Woodcock Playground, Salisbury MD, on a Sunday.

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