To the editor,
I know the Sunday shopping issue has been beaten to death, literally, but I do think it is important that we take the time to acknowledge the changes in Nova Scotia. A week ago Sunday, the first real day of Sunday shopping, I woke up and followed my usual Sunday morning habit of walking to the Steve-O-Reno's drive-thru on Robie Street. Something was different. It was loud. Sunday mornings are quiet. Cars whizzed past: there was traffic on Robie at 9am on a Sunday. Walkers and cyclists had forsaken their freedom of the streets and were obscured just like any other weekday. I couldn't hear the birds. On Sundays, I could always hear the birds, even on Robie Street. Walking home with my coffee, I felt that I should immediately sit down at my computer and begin to work, and it wasn't because of the caffeine. Gone were the thoughts of visiting neighbours, planting bulbs, cleaning out the yard. Gone was that great expanse that was Sunday, where anything and nothing could happen. Whatever one's opinion on the right to shop or the religious sanctity of Sunday, Nova Scotia needs to take a moment to mourn; perhaps someday we will realize we didn't know what we had, until it was gone.
By Susanna Fuller
