Life via Leisure

Be at leisure and see that I am God. (Psalm 45:11).

Be still: it is the only way to encounter God.

It's also the only way to build a culture. And by culture I don't mean merely the zeitgeist, the "way of life" for a society that amounts to just the cataloging of its observable attributes.

No, by culture I mean that which enables us to recognize our sovereign position in the world. We're not animals, put on earth solely to engage in activity -- to be entertained, diverted, indulged -- and then die. We have a higher purpose: ultimately, to win Heaven.

Plato wrote that lesiure allows us to be refreshed by keeping company with the Gods: it enables us to return to an upright posture after being stooped over at our work.

Leisure is not idleness, with its mind-numbing boredom. Neither is it privilege, the domain of the elite. Rather, leisure makes it possible for work to be creative; the alternative is work as mere frenetic activity.

Real music, real art, real architecture, real literature: these are the aids, the tools, the signs that point the way.

Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord: and behold the Lord passeth, and a great and strong wind before the Lord, overthrowing the mountains, and breaking the rocks in pieces: but the Lord is not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake: but the Lord is not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire: but the Lord is not in the fire. And after the fire, a whistling of a gentle air. And when Elias heard it, he covered his face with his mantle, and coming forth, stood in the entering in of the cave, and behold a voice unto him, saying: What dost thou here... (I Kings 19:11-13, DRV).