We are all curious souls in the search for some sort of meaning. I’m particularly curious around laws, cycles and rules which govern and control us, as humans on earth. A few years ago, I visited the Johannesburg Library and fortunately got a private tour. The security guard in charge was a man, who was edging towards his retirement, I think it was his last month working there after 30 years of service. It was a public holiday, which meant it was actually closed but the security guard took a liking to us, or maybe he was just bored and wanted a little company. So he took it upon himself to give us a guided tour. It was no ordinary tour, we got to see every single nook and cranny, as well as secret chambers where books and newspaper articles, which are hundreds of years old, were stored. I love books and history, so this was like every single Christmas come at once! One loose fact which stuck in my head is that only 10% of information (books, articles, stories) ever written was available online at the time. We know a lot these days, but it made me question how much we don’t know and how much we take for granted. My curiosity has never been greater.
Let’s start with, why a week is 7 days long and is split into 5 week days and 2 weekend days…?
I felt like I’d done ‘my time’ contributing to somebody else’s bottom line after working for a bank for 17 years. For a long time, I thought about and struggled with the idea of why we work 5 days a week, with only two days off. Why must we slave away for an organisation for 5 days a week and then spend 2 days recovering from that week? Only to get our energy levels back up in preparation for the following week! Who made these dumb rules?!
So it seems there is not an awful amount of reasoning around why we do have this structure in place, it is effectively just a man made thing. Almost like most things in life, we have made things up and kept telling good stories around them. We all love being part of a story…
It turns out there is (was) a good reason for 7 days in a week. Although with new astrological knowledge it’s time to start asking if this reason is still valid? There are other people who have spent their time writing great articles and doing research about the split of a week and weekend. This article explains things well and Wikipedia does too.
It seems that maybe we are fortunate in the times we live and that having two days off a week is a luxury, compared with previous times in our history. The concept of working for large institutions and playing by their rules is a recently new notion. We need to ask ourselves if it’s had an overall benefit on us, or it’s been detrimental to our well-being? Rising stress levels, rising debt levels, rising obesity levels and a society which is way too polarised, controlled and fearful of stepping out of the norm, are seriously holding us back from being truly remarkable.
It’s time to get a ground swell going, to ask ‘why?’ a million times more. To not just accept things because that is the way it has always been. We now have a lot more knowledge at our finger tips than ever before and the ability to express, share and debate good information. It’s your responsibility to get involved.