This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
This might come as news to you, but today – 2 June – is National Fish and Chips Day. Which is fine in itself. After all, why not celebrate our second national dish (after chicken tikka masala)?
But, it’s also – apparently – National Donut Day, National Leave the Office Early Day, and National Rotisserie Chicken Day. Whatever that means.
Why do we do this? It seems that every day of the year is a ‘National Something Day’. Which begs the question: who decides? I guess the answer has something to do with people who want to make money.
But, there is another element to this. Human beings need rituals that give shape to time. We seem to have a deep need to assign significance to the rhythms of the year and the shape of our common life. And … yet … I think it goes even further. In shaping the year we also shape our souls.
A key pointer to all this I find in the Hebrew Scriptures. The people of Israel are about to end their 40 year sojourn through a desert and move down into the land of promise. But, they get a warning first: when you settle, and things begin to go well for you, you will begin to gain wealth and land and property. And when you do, you will start to forget who you are, where you have come from, that once you were slaves and immigrants in someone else’s lands. And when you forget that, you will start treating other people as your slaves.
So, you will shape the year with rituals that revolve around the seasons of growth and scarcity. These rituals will help you to remember your story and shape your common life. For example, once a year you will bring the first 10% of your harvest, lay it at the feet of the priest and recite a creed … that states that your founding ancestor was a ‘wandering Aramaean’ – a nomad who owned nothing. And the rest flows from that.
Now, that goes a bit deeper than fish and chips or leaving the office early. And, obviously, rotisserie chickens might see things differently. But, how we shape our day or month or year matters. What we pay attention to says something of what we value – of who we think we are as a people … or what sort of narrative we rely on for setting our identity as individuals or a society.
Which leaves the question hanging: which narrative shapes what it might look like for my community to be just and merciful – and to show why we think people matter?
