Give Me a Break

Sometimes we just need to take a break. We have been taught to have drive and ambition, but we just can’t keep spinning in the hamster wheel. Every now and then we have to realize that we are dispensable.

If you just stopped doing what you are doing. If you were not around, sure things would be different; but not that different. You are dispensable. We can do without you. Really. You can relax and take a break if you want. We will be fine.

Fresh out of college, I went to work for a roofing contractor. We worked out in the country putting roofs on barns and big old “four square” houses. A “four square” is a big 2-story 8- room house.

One day, we were working on the roof of such a house. We had put up extension ladders, one from the ground up, another, shorter ladder braced with a 2X4 from the roof of a porch. Ladder jacks hook over the rungs of a ladder and then hook over a long board used as a scaffold. The scaffold ran between both of these ladders.

I was up on the scaffold, about 20 some feet off the ground, applying plastic cement around a dormer. I had a tray of plastic cement in one hand and a paddle in the other. Look mom! No hands! Under normal circumstances, one could walk out on the end of one of these scaffolds. You could walk out past the ladder to which it was attached, because they were hooked in place. It stuck out like a diving board.

I was way out on the end of this board, trying to reach an out-of-the-way spot. That is when the shorter and lighter ladder that was over on the porch roof started to raise up in the air. It was like I was on one end of a teeter-totter and my end was going down. Way down. An unintentional diving board with hard ground below. I dropped the lid of plastic goop and leaned back the other way. Thankfully, the other ladder settled back into place on the porch roof.

The important thing is what our construction foreman did. The whole crew had seen what almost happened. He called us all down off the roof and made us all sit down and take a long break. He knew, that quite often, one accident led to another. He knew that we needed to take a moment and calm down, a break.

One Fourth of July I brought home some videos about the Revolutionary War. (Right, I couldn’t just relax and enjoy the holiday, I had to learn something.) I learned that the best thing that George Washington did as a general was to retreat. Eventually, the British got tired of chasing him around! What George knew how to do, was preserve his army so that they could fight another day. Retreating is how George won the war.

You probably work too hard. We all think we are indispensable. Some studies say we have more leisure time than ever. Others say that we don’t. In the first place, the digital age has changed everything. It is unheard of to be without your cell phone, to be out of touch for even a moment. People are always using one or another device to just “check in”. This is work — not leisure.

Some destinations are now offering “digital detox” packages. Get away from technology. An organization called “Reboot” has organized a National Day of Unplugging. We also work too hard at relaxing. You’ve seen those cruise ship ads haven’t you? All that frantic activity? Is that rest and relaxation?

Taking a break is scary. First, because we might find out that the things that concern and consume us aren’t really all that important. Second, we might find out that we ourselves are not all that important in the great scheme of things.

So, if we just stop, then what? Well, the great scheme of things might break through to us. We might get a revelation of something that is beyond ourselves and beyond our current day to day concerns. We might find something to be ultimately concerned about.

At that point, it may be time to advance rather than retreat. Because now you have gotten a glimpse of who you really are and what really matters. You might just win the war, or at least live to fight another day. You might end up being indispensable after all.