9/1/14

Thank you for the weekend

I watch very little TV (the last show I watched slavishly was Friends, though I do admit to Sherlock, Downton Abbey, and House of Cards), but a recent viewing, perhaps even of House of Cards, brought me an ad slogan I’d not heard, “From the people who brought you the weekend.”  As I understand it now, this is a reference to labor unions, since people who worked in factories and on farms only had one day off, the traditional day of rest, Sunday.  Of course there have always and still are many people who have schedules other than M-F 9-5, people who work at night or people who work weekends and have weekdays off or people who have on-call schedules, etc.  However, the ad made me think of the new changes that modern life is bringing to our time, sometimes faster than it even seems possible to record, never mind process, and to me that change isn’t always positive.  With the internet, and with it email, cell phones, texting, and the like, many of us now can and indeed are expected to work—to be available, to be on call—every day of the week, every hour of the day.  From a personal standpoint this doesn’t seem like progress.  We all need breaks.  We all need “weekends,” whatever form they take. Thanks to those who made it happen and those who work to preserve free time, as we all should.  Take back your weekend, even if it’s only for an hour, and smile.

The New Weekend
http://www.usa.hammockyucatan.com/resources/bougainville%20hammock%20natural.jpg?timestamp=1335530421273

No comments:

Post a Comment

I welcome your comments and questions and will do my best to answer in a reasonable time, though working on my next novel has to come first.