Monday Morning Musing

Spending a good bit of a week in a car gives you a lot of time to talk to your spouse. And that's a good thing. It had been a really long time since PapaC and I did anything (other than a baseball game!) that just included the TWO of us. Vacations were, of course, family things in the past. And, God willing, some of them will be again in the future. But this time it was just us two. And that was beyond fabulous. It made me realize how lucky I am that nearly 30 years into this marriage I am married to someone that I would marry again. In a heartbeat.

It also gave us time to think and talk about our future, the future we hope for for our family, our upcoming obligations, and our wishes and dreams. Some of that thinking I'm sure I'll share on the blog. Some of it was far too personal for that.

We also spent some time talking and thinking about changes we want to make in our lives in a sort of spiritual sense. And one of them has to do with keeping Sundays.

I am old enough, as many of you are probably NOT, to remember when Sundays were days when most stores were actually closed. And not just Chick-Fil-A! Yes, the grocery stores were open, but not all of them. And even the ones that were open weren't open all day.

But now we live in a 24/7 world. There's some commercial out there now that touts this: "Hey, this is America! Where you can get a cheeseburger at 4 a.m.!"

Yeah, and a cup of Starbucks on Christmas Day.

That I know because my son was the one selling the cup of coffee on Christmas Day.

When he was working, he had people tell him, "Boy, I can't believe that you're having to work on Christmas Day!" And he replied, "Well, you're buying the cup of coffee. If there weren't customers, I wouldn't be here."

They sheepishly agreed. And his tips were mind-boggling.

Still.

One of the many things I am in this life is an accountant. I get the business part of life. And I'm not necessarily saying that I think that the government ought to step in and make everybody close on Sundays. Or on any other day of the week. And yeah, yeah, you can certainly discuss the people who need jobs working on those late night shifts and weekends. I'm still not convinced that it's not a vicious circle--because we ask people to work weird hours they have to shop at weird hours--and on and on.

But then what am I doing to abet a trend that I absolutely hate? If I keep Sundays for myself and my family, and yet I spend the day at the movies or at the restaurant, aren't I complicit in making someone else work on that very day that I'm trying so hard to keep for me? How can that be a good thing? How can that be right?

Look, I'm not naive enough to think that anything our little family decides to do will make any difference at all in this world. WalMart ain't gonna shut down because MamaT decides to do her grocery shopping on Saturday (or Friday or whenever) instead.

But it'll make a difference to me. So here at CasaS we are trying something new. It may not work, and it may not last, even if it does "work" (though how we'd judge whether it works or not I'm not sure). We're going to make every effort to get our errands run and our chores taken care of before Sunday. We're going to treat Sunday as a real day of rest. We're going to go to church, visit with our friends at coffee hour and then we're going to (gasp!) go home. Go home and be with our family. Go home and read. Go home and take a nap. Go home and crochet. Go home and play dominoes. Go home and talk. Go home and paint. Go home and play with the dogs.

It'll mean that Saturday will become a real work day. The day when PapaC and I have to get done the things that I must have his help for around here. And it means that I'll have to think more about what I can get done in the evenings (hello, loads of laundry!).

But what will it feel like to have a real day of rest?

I can't imagine.

I'll let you know.