As a child in the 50’s in a Christian home there were strict limits what I could do, or was made to do. If it was work, and not pressing, neither my parents not we kids did it.
I am still am a practicing Christian. Part of my attitude toward Sunday goes back about 20 years ago. My mother and my wife’s grandfather were both still alive, but with visual problems. I lack fine motor control. Sending them a letter in my handwriting would have been a cruel joke. I had a RS Color Computer and an Underwood-Oleveti dot matrix printer. The printer had 2 fonts in its firmware, regular, and and a very blocky twice as high and wide. I also coughed up to buy Telewriter 64, a primitive word processor. Start with the right control codes, and it would print things out in the large print that my mother and grandfather in law could read. Suddenly I was able send letters they could read. Now, when to find time to write to them. I realized I had 6 days a week to meet my obligations to the world, earning a living, keeping up the house and car, etc. Sunday was God’s gift to me. I didn’t have to do any of the crap I did the other 6 days. I could attend church and then spend the rest of the day doing things I wanted to that got crowded out. So almost every Sunday I would write a letter to one, print it out, lightly edit it, and print out for the other. Later, printouts included emails from the kids after they went away to school.
What I will or won’t do is colored by my attitude toward it. I hate painting. It is a loathsome task I only do because I am too cheap to pay somebody. One Sunday when we came home from church, John, next door, was out there painting his house. I was disappointed. Thinking some more about it, I knew John had been to church the night before, and his attitude toward painting was different from mine. He would actually draw satisfaction from making his house look better. It would be a good change of pace from his sales job.
I in turn do yard work on Sundays. I do let serious tree work requiring the chain saw go.
My dad worked in a factory building ship engines during WWII. Then, everybody did whatever they had to to win the war. He claimed they cut back to 6 days a week because of the limit of men and machines, they could do more in 6 than 7 days.
With some exceptions, all shops are closed on Sunday in the Netherlands. Religious and social politics band together to keep it that way, so there is a (religious) day of rest for all of us, especially small shopkeepers. Most shops are closed Monday morning, too.
That’s beautiful. And honestly, pretty much in line with my personal philosophy. Life is not about work and the world will not, in fact, spin off its axis if you take a day off. Honest. Try it!
Not as much as I’d like, honestly. I do get some free time here and there, and I probably don’t spend it wisely and enjoy it as much as I should. Maybe it’s a time-management issue, because instead of a full day off on the weekend, I get a free hour or two each day, split up into 30-minute blocks while laundry is in the dryer or after I put dinner in the oven.
If I was better about getting things done during the week and forfeiting some of my free time in the evenings, I could probably manage a full day of rest on the weekend, but things like mowing the lawn, painting the house, cleaning the gutters… that’s really weekend work. And if I don’t have evening downtime for internet-checking, I’ll be trying to catch up on a week’s worth of emails and Facebook posts on the weekend. Also, my husband gets home much later than I do, so he doesn’t have time to do much work during the week. Even if I give myself Sunday off, he’s going to be working, and I’ll end up feeling bad and pitching in.
I don’t work from Friday sundown to Saturday night. My definition of work is hardly Halachic; as I see it, anything I get paid for is work, and everything else is leisure.
My reasons are as much personal as they are religious, anyway. Sure, I could make more money if I worked on weekends. But it’s a matter of principle. My job does not own me.
It’s the same way here in Israel, except on Saturdays.
My days off change from week to week. I work most weekends, so the traditional Sunday day off doesn’t apply. When I am off, I tend to catch up with shopping, bill paying, housework and cleanign which gets missed on my working days.
Thought I’d bump this up in case someone was observing their day of rest by staying away from the internet.
Which raises another question: do you ever completely disconnect from internet/email/phone/texting when awake? I don’t for more than an hour or so at a time. I do turn the ringer off on my cell phone when I’m asleep, but I will glance at it during the night to see if I have any emails or texts. I’m not in contact with all THAT many people, but I do want the messages from those I am in touch with. Since I live alone, it’s not like I don’t have time to myself, sometimes too much time. So a text/email is usually welcome.
In the spirit of Sabbath? No. I seldom worry about work after hours, but that’s because there’s little I can do outside the office. Once I’m out of the office, I’ve got Things That Need To Be Done each day of the week except Thursdays, which is when I catch up on any writing tasks.
Weekends are usually busy with catching up on housework and family (usually a pleasure, sometimes a chore). We’re a secular household, so no church rituals for worship or socialising.
Probably about once a month, me and the kid treat ourselves to a ‘pyjama day’ where we do none of our scheduled tasks, gleefully ignoring laundry and dishes alike and only pausing the games to scavenge food. Onemorelevel.com is our object of worship.
ETA, my parents have a holiday home out in the country, whenever we visit them out there we’re off the net. The Kid regularly spends school holidays out there and starts to twitch around day 4 - day 5 being friday when I pick her up for the weekend and plug her back into the web.
I don’t just observe, I get in there a participate.
The thing is, I’m a naturally very lazy person. If I had the option I’d retire tomorrow. That’s kind of at odds with the fact that I work long hours at a mentally and physically demanding job. I also have an internal clock that’s completely at odds with working first shifts, so working 10-12 hours on 4-5 hours sleep is pretty standard for me. Plus I have a habit (read: every single day) of getting “in the zone” with whatever I’m working on, and forgetting to take any breaks.
So from the moment I get home on Friday, to when I wake up at 5AM, Monday morning, I do absolutely nothing. Seriously, typing this post is probably the most strenuous thing I done this weekend.
I keep Sabbath from sundown Friday evening to sundown Saturday evening. It’s both a discipline and a blessing–a time of freedom from daily cares and extra attention to God. I truly do “thank God it’s Friday!” as twilight starts, I light my candles and settle in to 24 hours of a slower pace and no obligation to check anything off my to do lists.
It’s not for god, it’s for your own mental health.
I sort of follow the saying that “rest is a change in mental focus”: right now I don’t have a “day I don’t do any work”, but the things I do on the weekend include a shift in focus, from “work” to “community” (church, family and friends).
I observe Shabbat. It gives me an excuse not to do any chores, errands, or stuff for work for 25 hours- what on earth is there not to like about that? People are a lot less likely to give you a hard time for not doing chores if you can say you’re doing it because of religion, not because of laziness.
