People need rhythm. The rhythm of day and night, of leisure and work, of meeting oneself and retreat.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe compared this dynamics of change to the work of the heart, with the alternation of systole and diastole. When the heart works in this pace of beating and relaxation, only then it remains healthy. Sunday as a day of rest, embedded in a weekend which is best for family. That there should be an order, that man should come in this order, was a constant saying in Goethe’s thinking beyond his simple act.
The strict daily routine in the Benedictine monasteries has followed the rule of this system with the greatest strictness over the centuries. Waking up before sunrise, the right time for prayer and work throughout the day, finally some time for yourself.
For centuries the media has raised or supported this structure of the world. The so-called “periodicity” of newspapers was an essential feature of his style. He appeared from Monday to Saturday, read for breakfast, sometimes even in the evening, with Sundays being off.
There were also weekly newspapers, dailies and, of course, evening newspapers, but everything was integrated into the rhythms of time and patterns of order to organize it and to reinforce itself with structure. Time was assigned. Even television had big breaks at night and the nation gathering for “Tageschau” at 8 p.m. was almost an unwritten law.
What a change in a few decades!
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