Up in Ontario

Idleness, doodling and social suicide

Do you ever find that you don’t have enough time? That maybe if there were more hours in the day, you’d be able to do everything that you needed to do in order to feel satisfied with your accomplishment?

I often feel this way, but why? Why do I wish for superpowers to stop time so that I can work more. Nobody’s gravestone reads, “wish I’d spent more time at work.”

What happened to the Sabbath? The seventh day, the day of rest and worship.

We’ve made ourselves into workaholics. We perpetuate the myth of busyness is better, idleness is laziness, laziness is bad. Be an ant, not a grasshopper.

But Aesop’s grasshopper had fun. He played music all day and danced. The ant toiled away--every day. He chastised the foolish grasshopper who showed up cold at his door. But why shouldn’t we support the grasshopper? Why shouldn’t we support different kinds of work, different models of balance. When we look back on our memories of fine times they are times spent with loved ones in pursuit of pleasure, not spent alone in the office on a Saturday.

I spend my daylight hours with people who 10 years ago would have been labelled "workaholics," but the business of business is has become the new religion, the new lifestyle choice. The focus is commute and cubicle. You are good and noble to work. Mention of life balance is subject to mockery.

People brag about how many hours they work, one-upping each other with their claims of dedication, of single-mindedness that somehow never seem to stand up to scrutiny (“I worked a 70 hour week last week”).

Foolish ant.

But the fight against work requires time and patience. You work to make a living but you don’t have to live to work. “Yes, that’s right,” you might say, but the media tells us differently. Do you recall those horrid real estate ads were the agent arrives upon the honeymoon scene or in your gym. The tagline was something like “we work so that you don’t have to.” What purpose does this serve? We enslave others to their jobs so that we can have leisure time. We’re enslaved to our jobs so that we can pay for our leisure activities.

The alarm rings and it's like the starter gun for the 100 metres. But the problem is you’re not running the 100 metres, you’re running full speed for the whole day. The race keeps extending until you collapse, preferrably having made it through the day. Expectations of performance rise. The next day requires something more: higher, faster, stronger indeed. Just do it. You don your Sisyphus nightshirt and prepare for the next day.

We work to afford the house, the car, the 2-child family with the dog and the private schools, ski lessons and coolest clothes. Leisure is high priced. If you want something, you have to work for it. Time is money.

Ever think, money eats time?

The November issue of Harper’s Magazine had an article on the virtues of idleness. The article makes the case that idleness is not leisure, nor is it laziness. Idleness is a psychological necessity. It constitutes a kind of political space, a space necessary to democracy. Idleness means that we have time to think about who we are, to reflect on the things that are truly important, to consider our beliefs, to be allowed time to analyze what the news is telling us. The perpetually busy, the frenetic, the righteous doers of work can lead us into wars. We’re so busy that when the 5-second, keyword-rich news cast tells us, "Suddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction," we think, "yes, eradicate evil." If they keep you moving, there’s no time to plot the escape.

It is social suicide to confess to idleness. What did you do this weekend? “Oh, nothing.” Unacceptable. “I caught up on some work.” Now, that’s good.

But no! It’s not good. Be idle. Think about the world. Why not doodle? Be a grasshopper, even if it’s just for one day.

See more bunny doodles.