The Day of Rest

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.
--Genesis 2:2

…But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.
--Exodus 20:10

The Sunday is one of the worst of my week. It starts off simple enough. I roll out of bed late, scrounge up something to eat, maybe watch TV or surf the internet. It’s 3 PM, and I think to myself, “No, I have plenty of time.” 6, 7, 8, still plenty of time. 9’o’clock hits and the panic sets in.

Homework. I have two papers and a slew of textbooks problems for math and a lab write-up for Chemistry. I have to read 20 pages for World History and take notes, because you know there will be a pop quiz tomorrow. Wait, I missed Friday’s notes. God, 47 pages plus all the vocab. And so on.

At 10, I start bargaining with the clock. Just let me finish my PowerPoint before 11 and I’ll be fine. 12 hits, and I start re-scheduling. I can copy the notes off that quiet guy during my free. I’ll scribble down some answers for math during lunch; he’s only going to check to see that we did it. if I get up at 6, I can do everything else. And past 2 AM, I’m not doing good work anyway. It’s more efficient if I sleep now and work tomorrow. So I rationalize my bedtime away, then realize it’s only 1 AM and I have all my work set out. So I log onto my blog site and write about it.

Then I realize tomorrow’s Memorial Day, and all this worry was for nothing. So now the schedule goes:

Immense relief

Stay up ‘til 3 AM puttering around internet

Rinse and repeat tomorrow night.

Post Script: It is with great regret that I must inform you that the average American student thinks of Monday holidays such as Memorial Day, Labor Day, and President's Day in terms of the time they get off from school. The exception may be MLK Jr. Day, but I expect when people take equal rights for granted a little more (as they do soldiers, workers, and old dead white statesmen), it will follow suit.

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the immortal jellyfish

I guess dying scares me as much as the next person. The very act of going peacefully into death is a leap of faith. There is no proof that there’s something waiting for you when you close your eyes. Who can ever prove that we aren’t a mess of nerves and neurons, to rot and fall to dust? To you this may be blasphemy; to me, it’s just an acknowledgement of my fear.

This jellyfish, the Turritopsi nutricula, is all but immortal. Unless it dies when it’s eaten, or killed accidentally, it will never die of old age. It just keeps cycling round, young to old, old to young. Scientists are studying it to understand how this happens.

They shouldn’t. More than stem cell research and abortions and all that medical “playing God” business Christian fundamentalists get upset about, immortality is an offense against…if not God, then the natural order of things.

How wrong to live forever! Already I’m tired and to chase that into infinity? With no death, the human capability for intrigue and plotting grows boundless. How wearisome. Not to mention limited resources. How will we sustain an ever-burgeoning population?

I’m scared, but not that cowardly. Don’t sell me your fountain of youth, I know where the line is. And all you vampire fanatics can take their romantic illusions of immortality and shove ‘em. Edward Cullen’s not worth your humanity.

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