More productive or more anxious?

This article is so chock-full of information that I had trouble processing all of the ideas and implications! It really made me think. It's about class differences, the current recession, and changes in the American work ethic.

We e-mail, we text, we Facebook, we blog. Are we more productive today or just more anxious?
By Katharine Mieszkowski
(about the new book, Elsewhere, U.S.A., by Dalton Conley)

I got thinking about my own work ethic. I take one full day off a week, Fridays, to make sure I get a Sabbath from ministry to rest, take time to do personal things, and spend time with Adam. But sometimes it's hard for me to slow down enough to really enjoy these things -- I often get sort of "stuck," going from 70 mph to 0 or 5 on my Sabbath. I feel agitated, distracted, and unable to really sink my teeth into rest. Even when I can continue to zip around because I'm using my Sabbath to do errands, I end up feeling resentful that I'm spending rest time "doing" instead of resting and just being. What is really rejuvenating? I'm still figuring that out.

This article made me wonder if that's because there isn't a clear division between work and leisure anymore, or at least not the way there was in the 1950s, or even the 1980s. Technology means most of us don't really "leave" work. I don't have a Blackberry, but I'm on email and Facebook often enough. And most Americans find their identity and strongest life satisfaction in their job. Most clergy do, certainly. And so, taking a day off from work can be tricky: how do I take a day off from all the thoughts and loves that consume my brain and heart, and that are fun and rewarding to think about?

But God made Sabbath one of the Ten Commandments. So I feel compelled to keep trying to explore it, and make it a less anxious and confusing experience for myself! I have a book I've been meaning to read, Receiving the Day, by Dorothy Bass. Maybe I'll finally sit down and read it next Friday, my next Sabbath.