Where I’m Writing From eli.cranor@gmail.com February 19, 2023 Eli Cranor is an Arkansas novelist whose debut novel, Don’t Know Tough, is available wherever books are sold. Don’t Know Tough made @USATODAYBooks’s “Best of 2022” list and the @nytimes “Best Crime Fiction” for 2022 Cranor can be reached using the “Contact” page at elicranor.com and found on Twitter @elicranor

I’m writing from any day other than Sunday.

Yes, you’re reading this on a Sunday, but I didn’t write it on a Sunday. It’s this new thing I’m trying out. This old thing, actually, that I’ve known about forever but only just recently decided to put into action.

It’s called the Sabbath.

Growing up in Arkansas, I knew Sundays were different. We went to church on Sundays. My parents took naps in the afternoon sometimes. Dad piddled around in the backyard. Mom caught up on chores. You couldn’t buy beer on Sundays, either. You still can’t in most counties.

Like I said, Sundays were different, but I never really knew why.

I knew it had to do with church, something about Jesus, but it wasn’t until just a few months ago that I came to understand the real purpose of the Sabbath.

The answer arrived in the form of a book, a slim, paperback edition of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s “The Sabbath.”

Heschel was a Jewish intellectual and religious leader. In his book he lays out this idea that there is an “architecture of holiness” that appears not in space but in time.

If I’m losing you, hold on.

What Heschel’s saying is simple, something most all Arkansawyers understand already but for whatever reason don’t always properly implement.

Heschel’s talking about the power of the seventh day.

Six days for work, just like in Genesis, and then rest on the seventh day. Real rest. A removal from the rush and churn of our daily lives.

This doesn’t just mean you take a nap, or go rake leaves after church. This is a total mindset overhaul.

“Six days a week we seek to dominate the world,” Heschel says. “On the seventh day we try to dominate the self.”

In other words, we leave the world behind. We don’t even let ourselves think about the work week or whatever is waiting for us Monday morning. We unplug. We meditate. We stay in the moment with our family and friends. We enjoy meals together. We catch the sunset. We sit out under the night sky and let the sheer size of the universe, all those stars, realign our perspective.

It's not easy.

Trust me, I know. I’ve been trying to achieve the idyllic Sabbath I just described for the past few months now, a whole slew of Sundays. But I’m a workaholic and things just keep coming up. The kids get sick. My phone still rings. You know, life happens, like it always does.

But still, I keep trying, and I wish you would too.

Regardless of your beliefs, I urge you to give the Sabbath a try, and here’s why. According to Heschel, “The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of the Sabbath. It is not an interlude but the climax of living.”

The climax of living, y’all.

That’s what I’m after, what we’re all after, but it won’t be found scanning social media or in your email inbox. The climax cannot be achieved through work. It is not earned at all. It’s a gift, and it’s already been given. All you have to do is take it.