SUNDAY
One’s own life feels less precious; one can contemplate being no longer present with tranquillity. You might head off to a cafĂ© in a bit, maybe take a book or your journal, eat scrambled eggs with spinach; it could be nice to take a walk in the park later and see how the ducks are doing. The point wasn’t to be joyless it was to make sure that time was free for other things. For a very long time, especially in the western world, the idea of Sunday was bound up with religion. A crucial part of the pleasure of Sunday morning is our awareness that it’s a distinct, unusual time. Normally you check your phone while brushing your teeth, rapidly scanning the messages that have come in overnight, mentally racing to keep track of all the things you’ll have to be on top of for the day, as you struggle quickly into your work clothes. Some may be scarcely known at all: the unexplored areas of potential in which one could (given the opportunity) grow vegetables, learn Italian, dance the rumba ...