Don’t undervalue the importance of taking a break

THE request to write this week’s “Thought” found me lying in the sun at the Kumpula Lido in Helsinki.

The pool was built for the 1952 Olympics but there was nothing Olympic about my afternoon of reading in the sun, interspersed with breaks for a little gentle swimming and a session in the sauna.

The word “holiday” has Christian roots. The origin of many of our holidays can be found in holy days, such as Christmas, Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost and the many saints’ days of the church’s calendar.

People were given the day off work so they could attend church and enjoy festivities appropriate to the day. Rest, recreation and merriment, time with family and friends, such things are recognised by the Christian tradition as vital to human flourishing.

Right at the beginning of the Bible we find the extraordinary creation narrative, which describes God as working to create the world through six days, before resting on the seventh day, taking delight in the “very good” work of creation.

And so we find that rhythms of activity and rest are a feature of the natural world. Day and night, the turn of the seasons, the hibernation of animals, the dormant seed in the ground, the alternation of work and rest can be discerned in both the plant and animal kingdoms.

“If all the year were playing holidays,” says Prince Hal in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1, “to sport would be as tedious as to work.” Work and holiday stand in relation to one another.

Work is essential to human flourishing just as is rest and recreation. It enables us to provide for the material needs of ourselves and our families, to contribute to the relief of those in need and to the broader common good. It gives meaning, purpose and shape to our lives.

Yet just a few minutes’ thought will tell us that we live in a time of multiple challenges to a healthy balance of work and rest. There are those who, whether for reasons of poverty or ambition or temperament, are led to overwork, making insufficient time for leisure and the enjoyment of family life and friendship.

There are those who for many and various reasons have no work and there is the ominous challenge of artificial intelligence and robotics, which many experts argue have the potential to completely transform the nature of work.

During this holiday season perhaps I could encourage you to reflect on your lives and on the relative priority you give to work, rest and play. Is there a sense of healthy balance appropriate to your stage of life?

And perhaps I could encourage you to reflect too on the broader social dimensions of work, rest and play, and the challenges of worklessness, overwork and radical new technologies?

But that’s more than enough. After all, I am supposed to be on holiday!

Before I head off to the beach for my morning swim, I wish all of you time for rest and relaxation this summer!