Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

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)

“What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it now! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it” Goethe

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W. H. Murray in The Scottish Himalaya Expedition, 1951. 

‘But when I said that nothing had been done, I erred in one important matter.

We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts.

We had put down our passage money–booked a sailing to Bombay. This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence.

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.

Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, providence moves too.

A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!’

In Praise of Manual Work

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Roy and I are, and always have been, people who’ve earned our living, such as it is, at our computers.

None the less, whenever I embark on manual work, okay, not heavy duty manual work– just painting, cleaning, re-organizing, gardening–I am charmed by it.

By how manual work literally helps one work off one’s bad moods. Relieves tension.

How it gives you a fresh perspective. Calms and soothes you.

How birdsong calms the nerves and soothes the spirit.

How, at least for me, my thoughts turn to God and to spiritual things when I work in the garden or around the house.

I think manual work is essential to complete, round and ground the personality.

Further reading

Working with your hands: the secret to happiness?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/may/08/working-hands-happiness-burkeman

“cog-in-the-wheel office life, where employees see neither daylight, their families, nor the end product of their labours.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/02/dignity-of-manual-labour

Flylady.net on Domestic Routines

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Flylady.net on the importance of setting up domestic routines
“As you establish the basic habits, you are going to begin to feel your light shining brightly!

With your habits established you are free to follow your dreams and use your creativity in ways that bless you instead of ways that sidetrack you.

You can’t skip the most important steps of Persistence and Consistency.”

Flylady and Hospitality: An Idiosyncratic Approach!

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 Flylady, the spunky North Carolinian housekeeping guru has this amusing advice–if your house gets messy invite someone to visit to motivate you to clean it up. If it gets really messy, really desperate, invite someone to stay.

Last Sunday, we hosted a tea party today for 14 adults & 17 children, all of whom got on well & none of whom were scratched by rabbits, chased by horses, barked at by the dog, scratched by nettles, or slipped into ponds.
The party motivated us to mow our grass, trim our shrubs, re-do our rock garden, paint our kitchen & walls; take trash to tip, unpack some book boxes and get rid of 10 loitering boxes of stuff, none of which our guests would have noticed either way, but it’s good to have it done!

“Anima Naturaliter Christiana”: A Naturally Christian Soul

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“Anima naturaliter Christiana” A naturally Christian soul. A phrase used to describe Virgil.

You sometimes meet these sort of decent, wonderful people–of every race, culture, religious persuasion–or lack of any faith at all.

And all you can do is cheer.

And you sometimes meet these naturally Christian souls in the animal kingdom.

My sweet first dog Juno was a naturally Christian soul. As to a lesser extent, is my current collie, Jake.