Labor Day                                               9/6/09

         There is a story in Marc Gellman’s book Does God Have A Big Toe?  That goes something like this: 

         I know you wish you could have lived in the Garden of Eden.  I know.  Great weather, no problems, good food.  But believe me when I tell you that the Garden of Eden was no piece of cake, because Adam lived there, and Adam was a list maker.  In fact, Adam was the worst list maker of all time.

         The elephant woke up one morning to find his trunk stuck through with a huge leaf on which Adam had written in berry ink,

Elephant list for today:

1.   Dump all the broken branches outside the garden.

2.   Hose down the dirty dishes.

3.   Squash some coconuts for lunch.

The monkey woke up to find a banana peel tied around its tail on which Adam had written in berry ink:

Monkey list for today:

1.    Dump all the rotten fruit outside the garden.

2.    Gather bananas for supper, and be sure not to eat them.

3.    Pick lint off other animals.

Come morning, almost every animal woke up with a list, and all day long Adam would scurry around checking up on the animals and pestering them to see how they were coming with their lists.

One day, the animals got together and said to God, “This guy Adam is such a pest!  Can’t you move us out of here?  Or better yet, can’t you move him out of here?”

God said, “Wait for the Sabbath.  There are no lists on the Sabbath.”

On the morning of the seventh day, Adam woke up bright and early to make his lists.  He went to get his berry ink pot to write out the list for the elephant, but the ink was dry.

“No problem,” said Adam.  “I will just go out and pick some more berries for the inkwell.”  But when Adam came to the berry patch, all the berries were gone.

“I bet this is the work of the monkey,”  Adam complained.  “But not to worry, I will scratch out my lists for all the animals in the sand on the beach.”

Adam took a stick and started writing lists in the wet sand.  But a wave came along and erased all the lists.  Adam thought this was very strange, because the Garden of Eden was near a river.  He had never before seen a wave that big in the river. 

So Adam sat down to rest.  And he felt good just resting.  Then the monkey came by.  “No lists on the Sabbath!” he chirped.

The elephant came by and trumpeted, “No lists on the Sabbath!”

And all the animals wished Adam a good day of rest.

Now that’s the end of the story as Gellman tells it, but I don’t think that should be the last line.  The last line should be: “And Adam had a panic attack.” 

I know, because I’m a list maker.  Every Monday morning I sit in my office and I make out a to do list for the week, and I work at it until every item is checked off – no matter how long it takes.  Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “That’s not so bad.  In fact that’s a pretty good idea.” 

But I have lists for home as well.  “Mow the lawn.  Do the laundry.  Rip out the carpeting.”  Again, not so bad you say.  I have my own honey do list.

Then there is the list for having fun.  Yes, it’s true.  I have a compulsive list of things I must get done in order to have fun.  Finish that book.  Make at least 25 cards.  Take a walk.  And I am driven until my list is done.  Just sit?  Let nature take its course?  No way!  I have to be busy doing something.  I can’t just relax.  That’s unheard of!

Not a good thing.  We all need time to just relax – time away from our day planners and lists.  Time to do nothing.  Yet most of us can’t, don’t, won’t do it.  In study after study they’ve discovered that of all the commandments, the one broken most often is the one about keeping the Sabbath. 

And we not only refuse to rest, we refuse to let our children rest as well.  We teach them to be constantly on the go, involved in activity after activity, rushing from event to event.  It’s bad when a six year old needs a pda to keep her schedule straight. 

We train them to be heart attacks in the making, overachievers with no idea of how to just be, how to celebrate “free” time, how to rest and relax and enjoy just playing in the back yard with no coach and no one keeping score. 

“Free” time is so important that God actually commands us to take it.  He turned it into a rule in the hopes we would get the message.  But we didn’t. 

“We can’t just take time off,”  we say, “there’s too much to be done.  The world will fall apart if I can’t check off my list!”

But God is there saying, “I made the world and I managed to take the day off.  What do you have to do that’s more important than running the universe and caring for all the animals and plants, planets and stars, every man, woman and child?  No.  I think you can manage a break from your lists.  I really do.” 

And so we created a day, a holiday, a holy day, to take time off – and what did we call it?  “Labor Day.”  How strange is that?  And what is worse is the fact that most Americans won’t take it.  They will go into the office, work a double shift, turn on the laptop to check their email while at their cabin on the lake. 

Admit it.  Haven’t you been guilty of the very same thing?  I know I have.  

So let’s confess our sins, and vow to do better, and let’s make a pact to take some time off, even if we need to start small.  Maybe you can begin with an hour or two to just sit and listen to the birds or admire a sunset.  Maybe you can take a stroll instead of a power walk and, God forbid, forget about a “power” nap and just sink into oblivion until your body naturally wakes up. 

This year let’s make Labor Day a day of rest, and if you must work, and some of us must, let’s take an hour or so on another day, a different day when instead of celebrating labor we celebrate a day with no lists.