Nope. I refused. I didn’t even bring my computer with me over my 3-day weekend. I also told boyfriend he wasn’t allowed to either, but it seems like he wasn’t going to in the first place. (brownie points!)
It all vaguely reminded me of the creation story, where God took a day to rest after 6 “days” spent creating the universe as we know it, ergo: so must everyone else take a day off every other 6 days. This always confused me because:
- Why is God taking a day off? Does his employer demand it? Isn’t he all-powerful? Shouldn’t that mean he has an infinite supply of energy? This may have serious consequences for the Laws of Thermodynamics.
- Why do people think a person day is equivalent to a God day? Certainly we need much more time to rest. If some theologians are correct in saying the Hebrew word in the Creation story now translated as “day”, actually means a long period of time, then my guess is humanity is on one of those “resting eras”. Parties for the next 3 million years!
- What did God need a day off for? This assumes he went back to work the next day–doing what, interpreting prayers? Monitoring the quantum states of all particles in the universe? Does he still take days off, and if so, then why do people worship and require his presence on his day off? This seems rude.
All in all, taking breaks from everything is always a good idea to keep a fresh perspective on life. To make more uncomfortable religion references, Ecclesiastes has a series of verses that mentions that everything in this universe has it’s own time and season, there’s a time to laugh and a time to weep. There is a time to walk away from Facebook, stop reading your Tweets for the day, ignoring Google Reader posts, and do something else. Go for a run, try a new coffee shop, read the work of a different poet, visit a unique museum alone. It all boils down to: appreciate.
How we set up our worldviews and major philosophies is important, whether we do it consciously or not. But it seems to me that regardless of your faith status, lots of people have a remarkable set of morals and ideas that are similar. And one of them is to appreciate our friends and family and environment, natural and urban alike. It is especially important for white college students in the Midwest (constitute the majority of my readers), who know that we came up lucky in the genetics and geologics lottery. I’m certain that appreciation is one of the first consciousness-raising steps away from explicit privilege, regardless of the form that comes in.
I recently commented on a post that each day we should find a new way to tell our partner, but it can and should apply to almost everyone, we love them in a new way. Bake them a new dish, , leave them a small note, do them a favor. Take nothing for granted, in order that you may grow.
