Rest by working

Once my Father said, “We are going to the mountains for total rest.” My Father, my mother, and all four of us children worked very hard cooking and preparing all that we needed to take with us. We actually worked overtime to be ready to go for a rest.

After driving two hundred miles, we arrived in the mountains and worked very hard setting up our tents and putting everything in its right place. We hiked, swam, cooked, and collected wood every day for two weeks.

Upon our return, we unpacked the whole load. My Father said, “Let us sit down and list the hours that we were active during our vacation.” The results were astonishing. Mother had worked or had been active fourteen hours a day. We, the children, had been active an average of sixteen hours a day. The result was that we rested by working hundreds of hours of overtime.

“But you are happy, aren’t you?” my Father asked. We all agreed that we were. “That is the idea of rest – to work harder in order to be happy,” he concluded.

-Torkom Saraydarian

The Sense of Responsibility in Society