Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

Archives for 2010

Self-publishing

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Self-publishing is the way ahead for a self-critical, perfectionistic writer like me. . Write something I am pleased with to my own standards, get it into print. Worry about an agent and editor after it is in print.
Oh the joy and freedom of just trying to reach goodness (not perfection) by one’s own standards and no one else’s.  It really is the way forward for me. 

Self-publishing

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Self-publishing is the way ahead for a self-critical, perfectionistic writer like me. Write something I am pleased with, the best I can currently achieve, good according to my own taste, get it into print. Worry about an agent and editor after it is in print.

Oh the joy and freedom of just trying to reach goodness (not perfection) by one’s own standards and no one else’s.  It really is the way forward for me.

In Praise of Solitude

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I love to be  in my our conservatory, reading, writing and thinking–or even trying to– alone. It’s a lovely, floaty feeling. It’s so peaceful. How I love solitude! (At times!)

Sanctioned Waste: The Sabbath. Love and Waste

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Sanctioned Waste: The Sabbath. Love and Waste

Exodus 20:8-11.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” 
The mouth of the LORD has spoken. Isaiah 58.

The more I think about it, the more I am amazed by the munificence of this command–one day out of 7 to just rest, to “waste.”

One scriptural way God’s people traditionally showed their love for him was by waste. Wasting one day in 7 to worship him. Wasting grain and birds and lambs and first fruits by burning them in honour of him. Pouring precious nard on his feet. Wasting their livelihood in sustaining Jesus and his disciples.

Love entails “waste”–laying down one’s life in spending time with, serving, listening to, loving, the object of your love.

God help us to waste one day in seven, by keeping it holy, consecrated, set apart for him.

Sundays and the ideal work week

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Isn’t it amazing to have a whole day, one day out of 7 devoted to leisure? This is unique in the Judeo-Christian tradition, in fact among all “people of the book.”
The Roman merchants used to make fun of Jewish traders, who rested and so did not compete in the marketplace for one day out of every 7.
But in fact, increasing the work week, for instance to 48 hours, as in the United States during World War II, leads to an increase in accidents.
 A work week much longer than 40 hours “result in stress-related health problems, on the large scale, as well as a drought of leisure. Furthermore, children are likely to receive less attention from overworked parents, and childrearing is likely to be subjectively worse. The exact ways in which excessive workweeks affect culture, public health, and education are debated, but the existence of such a danger is undisputed.”  http://www.associatepublisher.com/e/w/wo/working_time.htm

Annual hours over eight centuries

!Time

Type of worker Annual hours>
13th century Adult male peasant, U.K. 1620 hours
14th century Casual laborer, U.K. 1440 hours
Middle ages English worker 2309 hours
1400-1600 Farmer-miner, adult male, U.K. 1980 hours
1840 Average worker, U.K. 3105-3588 hours
1850 Average worker, U.S. 3150-3650 hours
1987 Average worker, U.S. 1949 hours
1988 Manufacturing workers, U.K. 1856 hours
2000 Average worker, Germany 1362 hours

(Compiled by Juliet B. Schor from various sources; Germany figure from OECD data)

A blogging business

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I am really enjoying maintaining my three blogs. It is the only writing I’ve done that has provided a regular income, since my writing has always been feast or famine. (The blogs are monetized with ads).

Turning writing, my joy, into a business, has been a joy!!

The memoirist’s art

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“If you forget a few stories, don’t worry.  What you need will come back to you.  We don’t really understand something until we have forgotten it.  Live in your roots, not your branches.”

The memoirist's art

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“If you forget a few stories, don’t worry.  What you need will come back to you.  We don’t really understand something until we have forgotten it.  Live in your roots, not your branches.”