Dr Jeff Cornwall

This was one of those weeks. Everyone looked tired here at Belmont University. The students looked tired, the staff looked tired and the faculty looked tired.
When I asked my students about their weekend plans, I hoped (as a parent of two college age children) that I would hear them tell me that they were going to rest this weekend. They all were dragging so much this week. Who could blame them with the first round of tests and papers for the semester just getting over and their jobs, and their businesses, and their sports practices, etc., etc. But what I heard from each was a weekend that sounded even more hectic than the past week.
This got me thinking about an article in Inc.com I read during this past summer. It was about an effort in Virginia to once and forever “rid the state’s code of ‘blue laws,’ or laws intended to restrict activities and commerce on Sundays.” But, in a legislative snafu “Virginia legislators accidentally repealed exceptions to the archaic laws.” There would actually be two weeks of even stricter “Blue Laws” due to this oversight.
Now as I read this article, I was struck by the author’s choice of language. Rid is a word that often is used to describe the process of casting out something undesirable, bad or even evil. Archaic, well let’s be honest, it’s a word that refers to anything that predates the Internet, CDs, and unleaded gasoline.
But, what’s wrong with a culture that decides to rest for one day? God even rested on the seventh day, after all. Maybe this isn’t something we need the legislature to force upon us, but is it a bad thing?
When I grew up, Sunday was just accepted as a different day than the rest. Most of us would get up more leisurely, have a nice family breakfast and go to church. Then we’d go home, spend time with our families and neighbors and have a nice family supper. We didn’t do yard work, as that was what Saturday was for. We didn’t clean the house and do laundry, as those tasks were taken care of during the week. We didn’t shop, as very few, if any, stores were even open. We just enjoyed each other (OK, so my brothers and I still fussed at each other a bit even on Sundays), praised God, and just slowed down.
Now Sunday is a day to catch up on work. It is for many, their day to gain a competitive advantage in their businesses.
When my wife and I first moved to Kentucky, Blue Laws were still in effect. Our Sundays had already gotten more like any other day by this time in our lives. The shock of the “Blue Laws” was immediate. What, no Mall shopping on Sundays?!? I remember that I had the same reaction that the author of the article in Inc had to this aspect of Kentucky culture. This was archaic!!
Looking back, however, I now see the wisdom in the old ways of treating Sunday as something different in our week. A day of rest. A day of praise. Do I follow the old ways? Sadly not really. Should the old Blue Laws be brought back? Probably not, since we don’t need government fooling around with anything more in our lives.
But, as I read about the pace of our lives today, the stress we create for ourselves, and the alienation we have from our families and neighbors, I can’t help but wonder. Maybe there was some wisdom in our old ways. I am tired. My weekend will be at least as busy as this past week was for me. And then I go back to work….