Save The Earth - Do Nothing

This looks like a nice place to lay down and do nothing for a few minutes.

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water or watching the clouds float across the sky is by no mean a waste of time.”

- John Lubbock

I am liking this quote right now, as the signs of seasonal change are upon us. 

Precious hours of daylight are getting shorter, the hummingbird feeder is less crowded, the garden wants harvesting, and Southern Hemispherians are talking about spring again. 

I have to lie on the grass and enjoy summer before it is gone.

Back to the quote. 

Rest is good, but what's wrong with idleness? I fully endorse idleness. In any season. Anton Chekhov thought that "there is no happiness that is not idleness".

The world would be better off if everyone were restful, relaxed, still, quiet, sedentary, or idle, more often. Blasé Pascal agreed when he wrote, 

"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."

People in consumer cultures often report wanting to have a break from the drudgery of it all. Work. Shop. Repeat. When do we ever stop?

After several decades of labour saving devices, why do we still have no time to sit quietly in a room alone? Because in the non-stop world of consuming, our insatiable desires must be met 24/7.

What if we were to increase our relaxation/contemplation time by 5%? 10%? 50%? I can guarantee that would be a life changing event, and I speak from both a research perspective as well as personal experience.

Increasing our non-consumptive activities has the power to make us happier and healthier. 

And it would certainly result in less harm to the environment.

Save the Earth - Do nothing more often.

The Importance Of Idleness

Medieval scholar Yoshida Kenko writing Essays In Idleness

Idleness has negative connotations in most industrialized countries where busyness is the norm. This could be the result of busybodies telling us that "idleness is active selfishness". Yikes! Who would want to do that? Well, many people, actually, including creative types of all stripes.

There is good reason that artists have traditionally sought out retreats in quiet, beautiful places. Such settings, with their relaxed schedules are conducive to the creative process. An essential part of the equation is idleness. Creative types know that down time is essential to doing what they do. It is no different for the rest of us.

We may associate idleness with the avoidance of work, but the thing is, idleness IS work. It may not look like work, and it may be enjoyable, non-sweaty work, but it is work none-the-less. It is brain work of the most important kind.

Yoshida Kenko, a medieval Japanese author and Buddhist monk, wrote of the importance of idleness, or leisure:

"I wonder what feelings inspire a man to complain of 'having nothing to do.' I am happiest when I have nothing to distract me and I am completely alone. People are all alike: they spend their days running about frantically, oblivious to their insanity."

Kenko wrote about being marveled that he could spend whole days at his writing desk "with nothing better to do, jotting down at random whatever nonsensical thoughts that have entered my mind".

His capacity for taking advantage of the power of idleness resulted in written works that are still studied by Japanese high school students.

Tim Kreider, an American cartoonist, takes a similar approach to idleness, and one that NBA readily endorses:

"Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done."

Spend some time in idleness today, and get work done. 

Gen Y: Not Buying The Work World

Slackers not buying the work world

Teenage participation rate in the work force is at a low not seen for decades. Some have used this fact to predict the demise of the world as we know it. They should relax.

Generation Y, or Slackers as they have been called by the more work-obsessed, have been slagged for a variety of sins, like having a poor work ethic. They don't seem to be playing the wage drudgery game, and that makes some people upset.

I, on the other hand, am with the Slackers all the way. "Go, Slackers, go"... or should that should be, "stop, Slackers, stop"? Whatever it takes, I hope they keep sticking it to the system in the greatest exodus from wage labour since the hippies turned into suit-wearing soldiers of capitalism.

But just because Gen Y is not participating in the labour force does not necessarily mean they are lazy. Maybe they are valuing other parts of their lives more than workin' for the man. Are they volunteering in their communities? Traveling? Helping out at home? Or maybe they are just enjoying being kids.

These kids may be the ones that make a break from our current soul sucking system. A system that awards a good work ethic with longer hours, worse conditions, and declining pay.

And besides, I thought the whole idea was to reduce the number of hours we had to work in the future. Isn't that what time-saving convenience technology and mechanization promised? Don't we all dream of a 3 hour work day, and shouldn't it be possible after two hundred years of industrial 'progress'? Why isn't increased efficiency freeing us from the drudgery?

Labour activist Paul Lafargue (1842-1912) thought God was the ultimate Idler: “After six days of work, he rests for all eternity.” And we get two weeks of holidays a year, if we even choose to take them. We are suffering from Idleness Deficit Disorder, and it is making us very sick.

I hope Gen Y is simply creating more balance in their lives - and releasing their inner idler. That is something I would support. If I could get off the couch. Go Slackers!