Monday, Dec 29

Dear Reader,

If you’re like Dot, you surely need a rest. So let me share with you some wonderful news. The best thing we can do for the planet just might be … nothing. Nothing? Nothing! Jonathan Schorsch is urging all of us to join him in the Green Sabbath Project, a mass movement to observe a weekly day of rest, a modern version of what the ancients practiced: No work, no driving or flying, no scrolling our phones or anything technological, no shopping, no building. Instead, walk, sing, play. Eat with friends (food prepared ahead of time). Gather in community. Rest. 

This isn’t necessarily about God or religion, insists Schorsch, “it is merely common-sense self-care for oneself and our planetary home.” Several cities around the world are already on board with efforts to encourage non-polluting R&R. On Sundays, for example, Mexico City allows tens of thousands of bicyclists, skateboarders, rollerbladers, parents, kids, and other pedestrians to take over more than a 30-mile area around the city’s historic district. Bogotá, Colombia, has similarly introduced car-free Sundays that the population savors, while England’s Playing Out program gives the streets back to parents and children for play. The impact is sometimes immediate, the Green Sabbath website tells us. “When Israeli cities shut down for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), nitrogen oxide pollution in the air decreases for the day by 70–99%.” 

It is not just humans who need rest. Our Earth cries out for it, too. As Schorsch puts it, “A green Sabbath restores Shabbat to its original intention of commemorating the creation of the world.”

Leisurely,

Dot