REFLECTIONS FROM THE REARVIEW
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Random Gatherings
  • My Book
  • FAQ

A Month of Sundays

4/18/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
What would you do with a month of Sundays? Well, this month we may get to find out. The idiom is based on the unlikelihood of it ever happening because a month of Sundays is thirty-one months, something no one would ever wait around for. There is also the issue of things changing, which is why a month of Sundays is hardly ever realistic. 

Nevertheless, here we are in COVID-19 pandemic trapped in the house with nowhere to go. A whole month of confinement and lockdown. And so we have a month of Sundays that we would otherwise NEVER get. I realized early on that there is something cyclical about this; where every one out of say, seven days is a crabby day. The family nerves are such that those suffering have to tap the brakes a bit and just let it out. At that point, if you are wise you will find something solitary and useful to do.

Hence, I found temporary refuge in the basement, doing something I have long needed to do but never got around to. There is actually a long list of those kind of somethings, because I have been busy as stink as long as I can remember, and a lot of stuff gets put on the side for a rainy day. Some of those, are basic cleaning and maintenance kind of stuff, that you have to just sit down and put some time into. 

One of those is sharpening. It’s a basic, and yet it gets neglected. I looked over my planes and chisels and other cutting tools. There are the few cheaper chisels that I reached for in a harried moment, to jimmy something, or to open the proverbial paint can. They were dinged up, covered in paint, and not very sharp. Just sitting around waiting for a month of Sundays, to sharpen up again. 

And so it was that I sat down and sharpened by hand. There are faster ways, but sharpening by hand is a series of steps that are slow and deliberate and it seemed to match the occasion. By hand is also slow enough that you can really get in there with some care and attention. There is attention paid to the angle, because if your angles are all over the place, you won’t get any kind of true edge. That’s where a sharpening jig comes in handy so that you can guarantee a constant angle. Then there is a regimen of coarse to fine, and then some honing compound on a piece of leather, or a very flat piece of mdf. 

There is something about slow and meditative that is forgotten medicine. I think in the Bible, they call it a Sabbath, that rest day where all the usual stuff gets put on the side, and different considerations take front and centre. There’s a healthy rhythm there that even atheists cannot deny. And so I am having my Sabbath today, calendar notwithstanding. For some odd reason, music seems to go with this mindframe, kind of like the urban myth that playing classical music in a barn will make chickens lay more eggs, or cows give better milk. There may be something to that. Easter having just passed, I called up some Andre Bocelli on the home speaker. Don’t ask me why but there is something about Italian music that seems to go with such meditative tasks as cooking or chisel sharpening, and maybe because it can be truly background. I can focus and just drown the other stuff out. That’s when not understanding Italian may actually be a good thing. It lets my mind wander to the ease of white noise. 

And so it is that my chisels got sharpened. Truly, it’s only one of a long list of things needing to be done. When all of this is over, I may actually have my life organized, and it has been a long time coming. The world just won’t let you do the thing you most need, to sit down and take it slow. 

I even sharped up my wife’s household knives, the same way, by hand. It was enough to considerably change the mood in the house. There is something about a month of Sundays that can do that. It also tells me that perhaps this is a reboot that has long been needed. And it is true I am sure that a lot of people are discovering slow and easy things that are near at hand that they forgot the value of. Sabbath… an idea whose time has come. 

I am old enough to remember life before the Sabbath laws changed in Ontario. Sundays were a day of rest by default, because everything was closed. Hence families got together in picnic areas, people sat and read, and otherwise recharged. After the laws changed and everything was open it seemed like the merry-go-round just never stopped... ever. I went camping with a friend and he was saddened on a Sunday to visit a nature area that used to be well-used for family time on Sunday afternoons, and now it was sitting empty. Everyone was either out shopping or distracted, playing on their devices it seems. 

Well, my planes are next I think. And after that a lot of things that need to be retooled, cleaned, sharpened up, given some love, or otherwise maintained. Truly, it’s food for thought. What would you do with a month of Sundays? We are all finding out and maybe there is a silver lining behind that cloud. There are even things like home cooking and eating meals together, long forgotten it seems in all the bustle of I don’t-even-know-what. 

How very odd that such unanticipated and healthy benefits would flow from a worldwide health pandemic. Topsy-turvy truths... they suddenly seem so self-evident.
Picture
Day Two....
Picture
Finely (and finally) fettled. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    UNCOMMON
    ​THOUGHTS

    ...about common things. 
    ​

    Categories

    All
    Accidental Story
    Activist
    Adjusting The Recipe
    Adult Admission
    A Flannery O'Connor Moment
    After The Tiger
    A High Christology
    A Little Bit Redneck
    A Little Lower Than The Angels
    All About Widgets
    Allah Wallahi
    Al Low Vs The Man
    All Saints
    A Long List Of Thank Yous
    Amazing Grace
    A Month Of Sundays
    An Offer You Can’t Refuse
    Antique
    A Pile Of Wood And A Plan
    Are We There Yet?
    Artifact
    At Hand
    Attending To Beauty
    At War
    Bad-Ass Outlaw
    Bad Faith
    Badlands
    Baked Boiled Or Fried?
    Balcony Lady
    Beautiful By Design
    Beauty For Ashes
    Being Human
    Belial
    Beneficence
    Beware Of Men Who Cry
    Big Buts Of The Bible
    Blessed Are The Pew Warmers
    Bound For Beauty
    British Invasion
    Bronte Oak
    Bucket List
    But If Not
    But Is It Sandable
    But Is It True?
    Buyer Beware
    Camp Of The Unknown God
    Carlton The Delivery Man
    Chaos
    Cherry Top
    Class Monitors And Safety Patrols
    Clothing Optional
    Cloud Of Witnesses
    Contra Mundum
    Couldn't Not
    Counting The Cost
    Covid Cut
    Creed
    Crucified Man
    Dangerous
    Dangerous Chemicals Of My Youth
    Dieu Et Mon Droit
    Different Drum
    Distressed
    Doing The Lord's Work
    Do It Yourself
    Do-Over
    Do Something!
    Dreaming And Doing
    Edifice
    Egging Armour Hill
    Even As I Am Known
    Even Me
    Even Stranger Things
    Fallow Season
    Family Bible
    Family Business
    Fellowship Of The Brush
    Field Of Faith
    First World Chair
    Fit As You Go
    Fixing The Machine
    Flawed People
    Flock Of Angels
    Follow The Money
    For A Time Such As This
    Fortissimo!
    French Horn
    From A Distance
    Frozen Man
    Funny Words
    Genetic Lottery
    Gifting
    God Calling...
    Good Bones
    Good God Almighty
    Good Government
    Good Luck Skippy
    Gott Mit Uns
    Greatest Is Love
    Gross Anatomy
    Grunt
    Haka!
    Hammer And Tong
    Hands And Eyes
    Happy Rooster
    Hearing Voices
    Hello My Juan
    Helping God Show Off
    Hidden In The Secret Place
    High Dudgeon
    History Bites
    Hockey Tape And Rubber Bands
    Holy Disorder
    Home Economics
    I AM
    I Cannot Help You
    I Could Be Wrong
    I Dare You
    Idiots
    If You Build It
    If You Get There Before I Do
    Im Khalil
    Impossibly Cute
    In A Strange Land
    Incarnation
    Influencer
    In My Own Time
    Inner FIfteen Year Old
    In The Details
    In The Usual Manner
    Invader
    Judge Not
    Just A Few Words
    Justice
    Just In Our Own Time
    Just Like God
    Keep Calm And...
    Keeper
    Keeping House
    Keeping On Keeping On
    KJV
    Knock Yourself Out
    Kumbaya
    Kybo
    Lamentations
    Lemonade
    Less Is More
    Let Me Count The Ways
    Let's Go RIde A BIke
    Linked In
    Little Boxes
    Liturgy
    Lo And Behold
    Logos
    LOL
    Looking Back On The Forward Looking
    Looking For Some Real Good News
    Lord Jesus It’s A FIRE
    Lorem-ipsum-dolor
    Lost-and-found
    Luck Of The Stable
    Magical
    Make-a-baby-laugh
    Make It Nice
    Maker
    Maker’s Mark
    Ma-pitom
    Marbles-in-spring
    Measure Of A Man
    Memory Box
    Men In Loincloths
    Men's Barber Shop
    Middle Ground
    Middleman
    Mistakes All In
    Montreal Spice
    More
    Morse Code
    Mosh Pit
    My Neighbour
    Myth Of Sisyphus
    My Wife The Movie Star
    Name Calling
    Natural
    Neighbour
    New Day
    New Wine
    Next To Godliness
    Next Year Country
    No Fancy Diagram Needed
    No King But Caesar
    None Deserving
    North Of Ground Level
    Nothing Particularly Important
    Nothing Personal
    Not Waiting For Godot
    No Wonder
    Oak
    One Coffee At A Time
    One Smart Farmer
    One Thing
    On Richard Rohr
    On The Lam
    On Writing Clearly
    Ordinary Time
    Out Of Egypt
    Over And Again
    Paint Over That
    Paper Boy
    Particularity
    Particulate Matter
    Part Of The Tradition
    Pater Noster
    Patina
    Pelagian
    Perfect
    Perfect Crime
    Perfect Ride
    Philosemite
    Pilate's Dilemma
    Pinky Swear
    Place At The Table
    Playing Favourites
    Pop-a-corn!
    Potato War
    Preaching Parrot
    Predators
    Prince
    Print Shop
    Prisoner Of Jesus Christ
    Proof Text
    Psalm 1
    Psalm 19
    Put Away The Books
    Putting Up The Lights
    Reduce Reuse Recycle
    Restoration
    Rosemary And The Drug Dealers
    Sandwich
    Say My Name
    Scars
    Second Naiveté
    Seeing Red
    Seven Sixty-Five
    Shouting From The Areopagus
    Shrove-tuesday
    Silent-witness
    Small-c
    Small-graces
    Sore-afraid
    Squat
    Starting With What Is True
    Street Food
    Superstar
    Take-a-punch
    Takedown
    Talking-head
    Talking Your Parents Down From The Ledge
    Telling-the-story
    Thanksgiving
    The-best-for-last
    The Bliss Of Ignorance
    The Church Invisible
    Thecrossingking
    The Evil Day
    The-general
    The Great Mystery
    The-joys-of-hash
    Themysteryofthecheshirecat
    The-particularity-of-place
    The-quickening
    Therefore-choose-life
    The Table-ness Of A Table
    The Way
    Though One Be Raised From The Dead
    Thoughts On Sixty
    Three Jews And A Gentile
    Thrice Wise
    Throwing The Spaghetti Against The Wall
    Timeless
    Time Vs Time
    Tim Falladay
    Tims No More
    Tonto And Me
    Touching Stones
    Trevor’s Super Bad Day
    Trick Key
    Tubafore!
    Unbelievable
    Under A Bush? HELL NO!
    Uninvited
    Unspectacular
    Use Gently
    Watching Paint Dry
    Wayside Chapel
    Weaker Sex (?)
    We Stand On Guard For Thee
    We Were Waiting
    What Are You Prepared To DO?
    What Lazarus Knew
    When Cows Fly
    When Odd Becomes Interesting
    Why I Still Like Cowboys
    Witness
    Woke
    Wood Show
    Woodworking Lessons In Empathy
    Words
    Words... The Right Tool
    Worthy Adversary
    You And Me And Rob

    RSS Feed

Contact Us

    Subscribe Today!

Submit
Picture
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Random Gatherings
  • My Book
  • FAQ