\u201cSunday Is Not the New Monday\u201d shouted the headline of the \u201cSuccess\u201d section in a recent edition of our Chicago Tribune (Monday, December 30, 2019). Having many reasons\u2014cultural, theological, traditional, personal, etc.\u2014to care about Sunday (or analogues to it in Judaism, Adventism, Islam, and more) I took the bait and read on. Author John Boitnott opens the article with a description of what Sunday used to mean\u2014or what he thinks it used to mean\u2014and how it served: \u201cSunday used to be for relaxing, spending time with family and friends and catching up on personal tasks.\u201d Boitnott says that he associates with \u201centrepreneurs\u201d and authors of advice columns who encourage their readers to \u201cstay available for work outside traditional business hours.\u201d <\/p>\n
Boitnott offers four clusters of advice in settings where \u201cwork\u201d casts its shadow on Sundays: \u201cStop the guilt,\u201d \u201cRemove yourself from the work environment,\u201d \u201cSet limits and retrain those around you,\u201d and \u201cPlan for Monday on Friday.\u201d So far, so good, if \u201cworkism\u201d or \u201cworkaholism\u201d is your problem. But is that all that is at stake and all that is to be offered to face the problem? We Sightings columnists are charged to notice those overlookable stories wherein religion or the religious may in fact be significant. Reread the Boitnott sentence again, the one about how \u201cSunday used to be for relaxing, spending time with family and friends and catching up on personal tasks.\u201d Yes, but for tens of millions of North Americans, among others, Sundays (for Christians; Fridays for Muslims; Shabbat for Jews; etc.) were also for helping people tend to general and specific matters of the spirit and the soulful flourishing of life….<\/p>\n