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Author Topic: The busy trap  (Read 893 times)

Ron

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The busy trap
« on: July 13, 2012, 11:15:32 AM »
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/?smid=fb-share

Quote
"They’re busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they’re addicted to busyness and dread what they might have to face in its absence."

Good article, the author draws some wrong conclusions though. Institutionalizing idleness will not give meaning or purpose to folks lives, neither will it teach them the real value of time.

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For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse. Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

RoadKingLarry

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Re: The busy trap
« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2012, 01:05:58 PM »
We've already institutionalized idleness, it's called welfare.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.

Samuel Adams

vaskidmark

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Re: The busy trap
« Reply #2 on: July 13, 2012, 02:25:57 PM »
Quote from: RoadKingLarry on July 13, 2012, 01:05:58 PM
We've already institutionalized idleness, it's called welfare.

That's not idleness - that's not doing anything.  Snakes basking in the sun are idle, as opposed to when they are chasing down a tasty rodent.  Right now I'm idle, as opposed to half an hour ago when I was up to my eyebrows in berating a local politician's stance on some pending legislation.  You will, at some time soon, be idle while reading this, as opposed to the rest of the day when you were busily engaged in being retired.

Idling is what your car's motor does when you are at a stop light - waiting to resume moving the car forward.

Welfare is active work - welfare leeches must spend every waking moment figuring out how to not get a job, or how to not get education/training, or what to do instead of nuturing their offspring.  You want to talk about folks who are exhausted at the end of the day?  Those are the ones!

stay safe.
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If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege.

Hey you kids!! Get off my lawn!!!

They keep making this eternal vigilance thing harder and harder.  Protecting the 2nd amendment is like playing PACMAN - there's no pause button so you can go to the bathroom.

MrsSmith

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Re: The busy trap
« Reply #3 on: July 13, 2012, 05:53:45 PM »
If I tell someone I've been busy, I'm usually making an excuse for something. Not being in touch better, not visiting more, not returning a call or an email. I've been busy is my stock response.

Guess I should work on that.

But I'm busy.
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America is at that awkward stage; It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards. ~ Claire Wolfe

vaskidmark

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Re: The busy trap
« Reply #4 on: July 13, 2012, 07:47:58 PM »
Far better to tell them you have been busy than to tell them they are so low on your list of priorities that you cannot muster the energy to connect with them.

And if you are contemplating "working on that" you surely were not busy as you have just admitted you have the time.  I always enjoyed telling my boss that I could not "work on that" because I was too busy doing everything else he had palmed off on me because he was "too busy" to deal with it.

stay safe.
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If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege.

Hey you kids!! Get off my lawn!!!

They keep making this eternal vigilance thing harder and harder.  Protecting the 2nd amendment is like playing PACMAN - there's no pause button so you can go to the bathroom.

Tallpine

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Re: The busy trap
« Reply #5 on: July 13, 2012, 10:44:50 PM »
Quote from: MrsSmith on July 13, 2012, 05:53:45 PM
If I tell someone I've been busy, I'm usually making an excuse for something. Not being in touch better, not visiting more, not returning a call or an email. I've been busy is my stock response.

Guess I should work on that.

But I'm busy.

Sometimes you just need to pet your cat, or check your eyelids for leaks  ;)
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Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward toward the light; but the laden traveller may never reach the end of it.  - Ursula Le Guin

MrsSmith

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Re: The busy trap
« Reply #6 on: July 14, 2012, 12:07:40 PM »
Yep, Tallpine, that's about it.
After so many years of obligations and forced interaction with others (and often folks I didn't even like), it's good sometimes to just be alone and quiet.
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America is at that awkward stage; It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards. ~ Claire Wolfe

Lee

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Re: The busy trap
« Reply #7 on: July 14, 2012, 02:52:18 PM »
Good article...lot's of truth to it.  My boss recently made a comment that the company we work for mainly values "relentless activity". Very true. We have meetings to evaluate the plan for the plan, for the meetings about the plan, on and on and on, with mandatory reports required from those meetings that reflect real time timeline changes in the plan.  Real work comes at the end of the day after 5 or on the weekend.  But of course... changes to the plan are coming in via email after 5, and on the weekend as the global morning dawns in the far east.

What's left of home life ain't much different. Both of my kids are very active in after school activities, but they pared them down this past Spring a little.  They got to come home after 8 hours of school and do what they wanted to do for a change...which usually included a snack, TV and a nap.  I was happy to see that really. 
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