OUR DAYS ARE SHEETS OF PARCHMENT

Last Friday evening, the local news media were working themselves and us into a panic over the approaching snowstorm. As it turned out, the panic was justified. It was a big storm after all! So instead of a busy Sunday, I found myself settling into a morning with nothing to do but look out my window into a “white space” full of swirling snowflakes.

“White space” is a term that’s used by graphic designers as well as event planners. Executives typically want to stuff as many presentations and speakers into their conferences as possible And event planners typically warn them against doing so because, they explain, people need “white space” – times when nothing is scheduled and participants have free time for informal conversation, personal reflection, and to stretch and move their bodies. As John Medina writes in his book “Brain Rules,” Learning occurs best when new information is incorporated gradually into the memory store rather than when it is jammed in all at once. Brains need breaks.”

In graphic design, most clients see empty parts of the page or screen as “wasted space.” The temptation is to fill every blank inch with information or images that communicate their message. But actually the more crowded the page or screen, the less the reader takes in. White space around lines of typed content makes the information easier for the eye to take in and read. Think about a page with narrow margins and single-space type. What is your response to that density of information? Then think about Google’s homepage, which is remarkably simple with lots of white space. Which is easier on the eye? Which draws you into it? The simplicity of Google’s homepage is calming and simplifying. Because there’s no dense clutter of images and words, it’s less work for our eyes and mind. White space also gives clarity. It helps us focus on what’s most important on a screen or page.

Staring at the snowy “white space” outside my windows and finding myself in another kind of “white space” where all my plans for a busy Sunday morning were cancelled, I began thinking about the white spaces on my new 2024 calendar. Each page has 30 or 31 small empty boxes (except February that has only 28 or 29). My temptation and probably yours is to fill up as many of each month’s 31 little boxes with appointments, plans, meetings, visits, lunches, dinners, or all the other things that fill our days and nights until there’s no white space left. It’s a temptation we should resist.

We all need white space in our lives – unscheduled time to simply reflect, rest, and re-focus on what’s truly important in our lives and not just urgent busyness. Psalm 90:12 reminds us of why we need “white space” in our lives and not just at conferences or on screens and pages. “Teach us to number our days so that we may apply our hearts to wisdom” (KJV) With more white space in our lives, we might find life calmer and simpler. More white space in our daily lives might give us great clarity about our most important priorities. If Moses knew the concept of “white space” when he came down the mountain with the Ten Commandments, he might have referred to Sabbath as white space.

As we look at our 2024 calendars, let’s resist the temptation to fill up all the white space with things to do or places to go. Let’s build in the Sabbath rest of white space. Let’s build in open times to “number our days” and gain a heart of wisdom.

In 12th century Spain, a Jewish rabbinical judge named Ibn Paquda wrote one of the earliest works of Jewish moral philosophy. This book, “Duties of the Heart,” is not just a book of philosophy and moral instruction. It is also infused with a profound mystic vision. “Duties of the Heart” has remained so important that Jews sometimes still read it leading up to Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which perhaps makes it uniquely insightful as we begin our new year. In “Duties of the Heart,” Ibn Paquda describes why what we now call white space is so important. “Our days are sheets of parchment.” He writes, “Write on them what you want others to remember of you.”

Pastor Thomas

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