# Resting with Your Hands By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2024-11-28 Winston Churchill is often attributed to saying, "The person who works with their mind must rest with their hands." The Jewish theologian and philosopher Abraham Heschel extended this by saying, "If you work with your mind, Sabbath with your hands. If you work with your hands, Sabbath with your mind." These wise sayings provide insights into humanity's nature and much of our current struggles. For thousands of years, most humans worked with their hands. Only recently has the rise of knowledge work begun to transition humanity away from working with our hands and towards working with our minds. When considering religious traditions and values, one sees a near-universal call to take time, reflect, and think. As everyone worked with their hands, one needed to rest with one's thoughts. It provided balance and togetherness. However, many people do not work with their hands today, so we see the erosion of religious institutions and traditions that regularly focus on thinking, resting, and keeping the 7th day holy. Many work too much with their mind and live in the world of thoughts. The idea of spending another day thinking is exhausting. Unfortunately, few religious and spiritual traditions have failed to keep up with this transition, and we've seen a massive erosion of societal value coherence. While meditation, prayer, and rest days will continue to be a part of the human tradition in one way or another, the real need for most knowledge workers is to do something with their hands. In other words, they need to impact our physical reality. This needs to be more than volunteering on an occasion; it needs to be a sustained and regular effort to see something built from nothing to something. The principle of the Sabbath still holds, as Herschel indicates in his quote, but one needs to rethink the Sabbath. Humans who think all the time need to build something with their hands to find peace and togetherness. Organizations and people who understand this are well-positioned for the future. #### Related Items [[Thinking]] [[Action]] [[Work]] [[Religion]] [[Society]] [[Philosophy]] [[Balanced]] [[Meditation]]