I see it all the time with family, friends and acquaintences. They’re too busy to do this, too busy to do that. They bring their smart phones and laptops on vacations, on weekend getaways with their wives — even on fishing trips. They just can’t turn off the electronics and give themselves down time.
And they’re proud of it. And yes, most of the time they’re tired, irritable — and in some cases, finding it difficult to get a good night’s sleep.
Tim Kreider wrote an opinion column recently in the New York Times that caught my eye and that is really food for thought.
Kreider wrote: I
“If you live in America in the 21st century you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” “So busy.” “Crazy busy.” It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint. And the stock response is a kind of congratulation: “That’s a good problem to have,” or “Better than the opposite.”
“It’s not as if any of us wants to live like this; it’s something we collectively force one another to do.
“Notice it isn’t generally people pulling back-to-back shifts in the I.C.U. or commuting by bus to three minimum-wage jobs who tell you how busy they are; what those people are is not busy but tired. Exhausted. Dead on their feet. It’s almost always people whose lamented busyness is purely self-imposed: work and obligations they’ve taken on voluntarily, classes and activities they’ve “encouraged” their kids to participate in. 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.”
Read the whole column. https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/
Recent Comments