the gospel of rest

On November 13, I received a report by journalist Melonyce McAfee, published in The New York Times in Spanish, about Tricia Hersey, a 48-year-old black woman from Atlanta who has proclaimed herself Bishop of the Siesta Ministry, whose philosophy is rooted in the physical and mental need for rest. From the aforementioned report I will transcribe and comment on aspects that seem interesting to me

Ten years ago, Tricia Hersey was studying theology in a competitive seminary at Emory University, working on campus, interning, and raising her young son in such a way that she couldn’t rest for a moment. She had to sell her car to pay for her graduate studies. This caused her to have to travel daily in three buses and one train, which meant a loss of time that Tricia made up for by taking time to sleep and rest. Her grades dropped and her health declined.

When he read on the sofa, he would often drop the book on his chest while taking a few minutes of rest. Those moments that in Mexico we would call “coyotitos” she liked so much that when she woke up she felt renewed. So she began to include moments of rest in her days no matter how busy they were. She took a nap wherever she could and however she could: in bed, in an armchair or on the benches between classes. Her health and her grades improved and her mind cleared.

Tricia made a commitment to work and study while also fighting what she, a black woman, saw as a legacy of forced labor and exhaustion suffered by her ancestors. Her father worked for the Union Pacific Railroad while helping run a church and spending time in community activism. Her overwork caused her to die at age 55. On the other hand, her maternal grandmother, despite how busy she was with housework and raising children and grandchildren, took half an hour every day to take a nap or close her eyes and meditate on the sofa. Tricia reflected on the two family lessons and concluded on the need to resist external demands in order to serve oneself.

Hersey began inviting people to nap collectively in person or via social media while delivering calming sermons on the power of sleep and daydreaming. She currently has half a million followers on Instagram and many others on other platforms. Tricia encourages her followers to use the time to sleep instead of doing extra work or staring at a screen to stare at nothing. In October she published a book: Rest is resistance (Rest is resistance) where she states: “The culture of the daily grind has normalized the fact of pushing our bodies to the brink of destruction. We proudly proclaim that we show up to work or an event despite injury, illness or mental slack. We are praised and rewarded for ignoring our body’s need for rest, care, and repair.”

In Tricia’s opinion, the Siesta Ministry is not a religious movement, but rather a spiritual antidote to the earthly problems that plague communities: burnout, chronic illness, and mental health crises, issues that she believes arise of the systems of capitalism and white supremacy.

Convinced of the need to rest, the author of this column will take a vacation. He will be back on Tuesday, January 13. Meanwhile, readers and readers, receive a New Year’s hug.

Final point

From the creators of “Tomorrow I clean it” and “Five more minutes and I get up”, now comes: “Starting in January I will exercise”.

elprivilegiodeopinar@eleconomista.mx