The Pursuit of Sunday
Sundays are a mystery to me. I have lived Sundays all my life and yet I still don’t completely understand them. They can be my favorite day while other times they occupy almost a place of dread.
Sundays should be simple, they are a day of rest. I grew up in church every Sunday so it should be simple for me; just follow the 4th commandment. It’s just not that simple.
A Sunday in the fall means football, the Minnesota Vikings for most of us. I took piano lessons from Judith Hofrenning, wife of Pastor Ralph Hofrenning. He enjoyed talking about the Vikings with me so even he must have spent a portion of his Sunday watching the game too.
Sundays also meant Sunday dinner and then an afternoon drive with my parents while we listened to Uncle Sig play polka music on the Grafton station. We usually ate at Country Kitchen or the Hi-By in Thief River Falls. I liked the Country Kitchen because every booth had a miniature jukebox but I also liked the Hi-By for their video arcade and cool Hamm’s beer signs. These displays used lights to make the appearance of a rolling river.
I spent a lot of Sunday winter afternoons building model airplanes and watching Shopsmith infomercials. The Shopsmith was a machine that took the place of many different woodworking tools and sold via direct marketing using half-hour infomercials. The infomercials were repetitive however I found this power tool fascinating. The combination of model building and infomercials wasn’t outwardly productive but it did create a nice peaceful feeling.
As an adult, I worked a lot of Sundays. I spent almost thirty one years working at the Sheriff’s Office which was always open and so needed to be staffed. Even here we would often bring food to share as we tried to replicate the Sunday afternoon we grew up with.
The flip side of working weekends was a cherished weekend off. If I can judge by social media, these Sundays are often tainted by anxiety as people consider a return to work on Monday. You can like your job but still feel dread on a Sunday afternoon however the anxiety is a waste of time. I understand it, have felt it myself, however worry is still a waste.
Sunday means something different to everyone; church, family dinner, fishing, football or even polka music. I don’t work on Sunday, however I am sometimes busy. Lisa and I go for a drive and go out to eat. I sometimes perform lawn work and it is my favorite day to lift weights. Sometimes we go to church on Sundays and sometimes we go on Wednesdays, there’s a lot of variables to the day.
I am careful about what gains my focus on Sundays. What you listen to and then focus on becomes the most important thing in your life. I try to really relax my mind and turn the world’s noise off so I can really listen. What do I listen to? I think that is the real secret to the successful pursuit of a Sunday.
