A Case for Taking Back Mornings

One of the great casualties of the Protestant work ethic is the loss of one’s right to a leisurely morning.

Hustle culture has committed this atrocity, this butchering of a peaceful and idle morning, for the sake of what it calls “progress.”

Therefore, the virtue of doing little is replaced with the anxiety of cramming too much into a limited number of hours. Ironically, the more tasks one attempts to cram, the less significant the morning becomes.

The tea drinker of old is virtually extinct in the United States. Making a good tea requires patience, quietude, care, and time. Leisure time is unacceptable for the modern careerist that dominates the material west. The careerist sees only a future to sprint towards and a coffee to chug along the way. This is somewhat mandatory in the eyes of many, as there is always a bill to pay and a material to purchase.

It is this rush forward that ironically strips the careerist of time. It is common for the office executive or sales representative to say, “I don’t know where my years went.” Meanwhile the present moment stands still for the idler because he or she is capable of enjoying time itself.

Whose ideal morning actually involves an alarm clock? Alarm clocks should be thought of as the original sin, since they are the first sin to introduce themselves in the day. The ideal morning begins after dawn, without the strident sound of an alarm clock, when final dreams peacefully transition the mind to a waking state, and then subsequently fade from memory. Maybe some of these dreams are written down. Others are recalled as strange or beautiful, but quickly forgotten.

The idler then shuffles out of bed and if there is a rush, it is only to the couch, where repose continues. Or better yet, the idler stays in bed! There he or she reads for awhile, and maybe journals. If feeling tired, perhaps there is another attempt made at sleep.

Once rest is deemed sufficient, the ideal morning consists of tea or coffee. However, this should be a ritual, not a rush! Coffee should not come from those awful K-cups or automated machines, but rather from a French press or pour-over method. One should appreciate and detect the flavors of the roasted beans. The coffee should be sipped slowly and enjoyed while listening to music or engaging in pleasant conversation. It should not be delivered via drive-through or slurped in a car.

Drinking a cup of coffee or tea should have no time limit. If it takes the entirety of a morning, so be it.

And what of exercise? I journal my own extensive running and cycling miles, after all. And admittedly, most of my exercises are performed at an early hour.

But they shouldn’t need to be an early morning masochism! An exercise in the modern west is nothing more than an obligatory chore, a mandatory movement that’s only required because work is so sedentary. Therefore, exercise in the modern west is a hustle in itself. This should be changed.

Let’s assume one decides to exercise in the morning. Exercise should, ideally, be an adventure. It should be a game, a way of life. Racing is often fun. Getting faster is both fulfilling and painful, but one does not need to commit routine self-destruction or follow a miserable routine just to get faster. Exercise should include places to explore and people to meet. It can be a blend of suffering and joy rather than pure suffering. Life itself is a blend of joy and suffering, so it makes sense that the ideal exercise mimics life itself. Exercise should allow one the opportunity to see the world through new and unique perspectives via the gift of movement. One does not require complete body breakdown to adequately exercise.

Exercise should not be viewed as a quest for more self-inflicted pain. This is how the Protestant-minded careerists view exercise because they see the body only as something to punish in the pursuit of “improvement.” Why, I often wonder, does one commit so much self-destruction via work, only to further the harm with terrible means of exercise?

So yes, I value exercise, but I also challenge the notion that it should be a “pre-dawn task.” I also believe that ideal exercise is done outside. Maybe it’s a bike ride after tea or coffee and a bite to eat, and maybe it can wait until the afternoon. Exercise can be a fun routine when it isn’t rendered overly mechanical.

Exercise, like tea, is a process to enjoy, not an obligation to hurry through.

Can much else be accomplished in this fictitious-but-ideal morning? Sure. One can laugh, love, write, paint, compose, or whatever craft that involves both mind and matter.

However, mornings have been devoured by e-mails, rush-hour traffic, fast food, and long work hours. If we hypothetically managed to take all of these out of our mornings, I argue that we would not have the alarmingly high rates of depression we currently see in western civilization. In fact, we’d be fairly content.

Although I know this ideal morning is probably impossible in modern culture, I nonetheless think it’s worth imagining. The quest for “less” is probably futile in a world forever bound to craving more, but one can wish…