Day of rest redefined

(Nyx)

Like most Brits, I have enjoyed the benefits of being able to shop on Sundays. But it is a benefit I have always been slightly ambivalent about. And not just because I'm a Christian, with a bit of a soft spot for that particular day of the week. It's far more because I think everyone really does need a day off. And there's something good in terms of social (or at least family) cohesion that we all do this at the same time.

Anyway, there was a short piece in the Guardian recently ("Bring Back Sundays") pondering the need to recapture some of this old sense of having a 'day of rest', but with a thoroughly modern and very relevant twist to why this would be a good thing: the positive impact it would have on the environment.

As it finishes...

"I envisage a volunterist movement, with the theme of a carbon-free and local Sunday. Every Sunday would be a day of action against global warming, a Mind-The-Sun Day…(shops might display) signs reading We Are Closed On Sundays For Carbon Saving…(And the) aim would be…the promotion of a space for rest and reflection, the transformation of one day into an antidote to the other six that are killing us".

As much as this might shock our modern, consumerist sensibilities, a day off from the mad world we live in sounds like a pretty good and rather appealing idea to me.

Even if no one else joins in, it might be something worth trying. And you could find yourself surprised how nice some true rest really is.