Take A Break!

 Disengage: Modern life subjects us to all-consuming demands. That’s why we should reflect on what it means to step away from it all

...Recently, the United States surgeon general issued a public health advisory detailing a growing epidemic of isolation and loneliness, one fuelled largely, though not exclusively, by our increasing use of digital technologies as a substitute for in-person engagement. This trend was taking shape long before the COVID-19 pandemic forced our mass removal from public space and from familiar patterns of shared life, and we are only beginning to understand that era’s long-term effects on our personal and public wellbeing. Meanwhile, the moral and managerial panic over the great resignation, quiet quitting and other (even benign) forms of labour disruption in the wake of the pandemic reveals the extent to which our voluntary practices of leave-taking have been pathologised. We are, it seems, obliged to show up – to be reliably present, available and legible – for our own good or for that of the collective.

Rarely do we display much intellectual curiosity about what these practices of withdrawal might be doing for – not just to – us. Acts of disengagement are routinely met with scepticism, judgment and pushback in public discourse. What if we were to treat them instead as opportunities for open enquiry and ask what is to be gained by them? In that spirit, I propose an expanded lexicon that speaks to the benefits of escaping (even temporarily) the confines of waged work; of disconnecting from the enmeshments of a modern existence; and of seizing interludes for contemplation in a world that is chockablock with demands and distractions.

I think there is one great support tot his idea of needing time to ourselves, and it also came through yesterday from Coffee with Sr. Vassa:

THE COMMANDMENT TO REST

          “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.” (Deut 5:13-14)

            This Saturday, I’m again thinking about the Old Testament Sabbath-commandment. As Christians, we no longer do “no work” on Saturdays, but the fact that God found it necessary to “command” His people to rest, not only for their own sake but so that *others* could rest (from them) as well, (“that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you”), reminds us that it is important that we sometimes “rest,” for our own sake and for the sake of others, especially those who depend on our work in some way.

            The next verse after the above-quoted passage reminds us of another reason we should sometimes give others a break, not just from work: “And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” (Deut 5:15) If we interpret this verse as it might apply to *us* in *our* times, we might hear God saying to us: Remember that you, too, have been liberated from certain forms of bondage through My grace; perhaps having recovered from certain obsessions, addictions, or delusions. So, now you might give others a break every now and then, who still labor in some way under certain other addictions, obsessions, or delusions. Help us, Lord, give ourselves and others a break, every now and then, that we find and honor times of rest in our age of 24/7 connectivity.

I used ot work 7 days a week, 52weeks a year. This wore me out and left me prey to depression, suicidal thought, and, eventually, my current status. I sugges tyou follow Sister Vassa's advice.

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