It’s not an original idea to suggest a new federal holiday, but let’s call this one Time Out. Its purpose: to live for one day each year without purpose, accomplish nothing at all. It would be a daylong devotion to thinking about our lives. Where we’ve been, where we are, where we’re headed, what we know, what we don’t, what we want. We’d produce no goods, render no services. Folks whose work is essential could have the following day off, paid. We could all just annually heed this stop sign, cut the engine. The holiday’s only reason for being would be to recognize that we could use a collective breather, and take it. Regardless of age, status, or any identifier, we owe it to ourselves to spend 1/365th of our time thinking officially about what we’d like to do with the rest.
I suppose the country would be better for it. After awhile, we might make better decisions individually that could wholly improve American life. Yes, we already have holidays that give most of us time off, but there isn’t a single one that extends such a luxury to everyone. This is a holiday that would be truly sacred, from coast to coast, uncorrupted by commerce.
If this sounds a little bit like Thanksgiving, let’s consider. We might separate the original spirit of Thanksgiving from what it has become. It’s ostensibly the all-inclusive American holiday. No matter where we’re from, if we work or how much we earn, if or where we worship, it’s our day to give thanks over a feast with family and friends. Whether we break bread enthusiastically, begrudgingly, neutrally—we venerate the idea that we show gratitude together. However, like so much of modern American life the holiday has been consumed, at least in part, by commerce.
To celebrate a pure Thanksgiving almost requires a special focus. It feels sometimes like we have to repel the stubborn, profane encroachment of the marketplace onto what should remain a hallowed ritual. We should feel renewed by it, not exhausted. The holiday has come to feel like a mandatory on-ramp to a crazy winter holiday frazzle that no one wants. It’s the Q4 fin de fiscal, attended by an anxious buzz that doesn’t let up til after Christmas. It signals the start of the holiday shopping season, brings up hazy news story memories of past black Friday horde tramplings and in-store fights over hot toys in too short supply. Expert advice cycles in through media every year like clockwork—how to deal with difficult relatives? What dishes can be made ahead to limit kitchen stress? How large should the turkey be for twelve? What if everyone just wants to watch the Lions and Cowboys games and not really talk? What if the movie theater manager assigns mandatory shifts for the sellout premiere crowd and you’d rather not spend this particular evening ripping stubs or pumping butter? Why, at the end of so many Thanksgiving nights across the country, must so many hosts feel so spent?
Let’s have a day to get together with our own thoughts. There isn’t one that is designated for the individual and the project of enriching a life. An annual check up—check in with ourselves and check out of life online, escape the world to reach our inner lives. Would you like to wake up once a year and do whatever the hell you want? Sit monk like on a beach bluff and feel the salt air against your face? Escape to the dry expanse of a desert, jump in for a swim in a stream fed lake? The spirit of the proposition here is that the day remains open, free of appointments, errands, obligations. The richest country in the world can afford to let its economy stagnate for a day, but can we afford to keep hustling, head down, producing year after year, without really ever coming up for air? Some of us don’t even get proper vacation time, and not everyone who does can afford to use it.
What a well deserved treat it would be to get out from under the crush of the calendar. If only for a day, let’s take time out to prospect inside our minds for long deferred dreams. Let’s not just chip away at the coal that powers us through the same old motions. Let’s get out of the dark, or if we must be there, take time to look for the veins of gold.