"One swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed or happy." - Aristotle (from Nicomachean Ethics) 

"The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride." - Sirach 7:8

This is a blog about Sundays.

This is a blog more specifically about what Sundays involve--- Divinity and Leisure.

Indeed, this blog, "Holy Wit", is most fixated on the divine quality of leisure, which is the summit of freedom (properly understood) and the notion of God's Time (ranging from philosophical musings on "Eternity" to the rhythms of Liturgical Time to the very notion of Providence in History, etc., etc.).  As this blog shall argue, these two ends are intimately connected.

Here, I also meditate upon the Sacred Things in my life and-- to a lesser extent--- your life, be they big or small.   

Such things are to be contrasted with the life of work, of labor, of business, of politics, of money, of what were once properly termed temporalities or, most abstractly phrased, as means over ends.

Do not misunderstand me: work is necessary and even good for us to a certain extent; and one's means are important to consider as a rule, but this is not the place for such things. 

In principle, there must be a time and a place where such preoccupations (and indeed, that is what they happen to be) are suspended in so far as they are not done for their own sake. 

Here, we care about what is done for its own sake.

To live illogically and inhumanely (and they are one in the same thing) is to do something for the sake of something else and yet never consider what that something else is.  That is the life of a slave.  What makes the modern ages so unique is that slavery is no longer something strictly imposed upon another's will by another.  Rather, it is far more likely to be self-incurred, consented to, or negotiated.  This slavery is the end result of two forms of excess: working too often (out of fear of staying "competitive") and consuming too much (in mindless state of "entertainment").  Much of our digital economy is devoted to one or the other of these two extremes.

By contrast, if true leisure is what should be undertaken for its own sake, it raises an important question: What have our ancestors done for its own sake?  Looking to the past, is there any guidance on how to properly live.

Well, that is what I hope to catalogue; and I try do so a little, here and there, on Sundays and other Holy Days, in so far as those are the appointed times to stop and reflect upon that distinction of what is the most productive use of our time vs. what is most worthwhile.  By definition, they cannot be one and the same thing. 

If I hope to impress upon you anything, it is that insight here and now.

Be well!