The Pun Also Rises(as seen in the North Adams Transcript)
"American Idle"March is a month whose name means relentless forward progress. And we often see progress -- especially progress in step with those around us -- as a good thing. But sometimes the reason people march is that they have been told to do so, and they haven't necessarily considered their route or destination. If I could give people one piece of advice, it would be this: "Slow down." This is great advice to those of you driving down Marshall Street past Mass MoCA, for two reasons. First of all, I have to cross that street a lot. But perhaps more importantly, by slowing down, you can take a moment to appreciate the giant suspended rock just outside of the Mass MoCA gates, or the upside-down trees inside the gates. Both are works of art in keeping with Mass MoCA's motto: "Stuff from the ground, raised to the sky, that's what we do, we can't say why." Even if you have no interest in a Burma-Shave exhibit, there is something to be said for slowing down in a more general sense. Trust... me... on... this. We're living too fast these days. And I don't just mean with respect to the theory of relativity, because we already solved that problem earlier this year by sitting on stoves and avoiding pretty girls. I mean that the pace of our lives is unnecessarily frenetic, to the point that we are rarely left with sufficient idle time. I know what you're thinking. You really want a hamburger. Wait, that's what I'm thinking. You're thinking that we don't need any more idle time. After all, they say that idle hands are the devil's workshop. When Britney Spears' hands are idle, she writes 666 on her own head. "The Anti-Christ, she claims to be, and from all hair, her head is free." Thankfully, most of America is not Britney Spears. We very much need our idle time to help us recharge. In that way, we are similar to computers. When a computer tries to run many programs at once without any rest, an error often occurs. The best way to fix this error is to stop all the processes and let the computer run idle. After returning to a perfectly idle state, the computer will be better able to run complicated programs. People are the same way. It's like I always say, "General Protection Fault Error: AGA3141592." Being idle isn't just about recharging; it has its own value. When we are idle, we discover who we really are. Here's a hint: We are generally people who don't want to be working so much. And that's okay. Heck, it's even good! Sometimes it's useful to remember that we aren't computers, and that we don't spend idle time just to prepare for working harder. On the contrary, many of us work hard precisely so we can enjoy the idle moments between our work. Realizing that makes me feel almost guilty about wolfing down instant food so I can get back to work. Really, we should be wolfing down work so we can get back to enjoying our meal, which may or may not contain any wolf. The philosopher Bertrand Russell once wrote an essay in praise of idleness. (He also wrote, "The present king, of lands in France, Does he have hair? There's not a chance.") Russell argued that the world ought to be structured such that people could work four hours a day for all their basic needs. The rest of our time could be spent in idle pursuits, be that political debate, appreciation of the arts, or contemplation of life itself. Does that sound idyllic? Well, how better to approach an idyllic life than by being idle? Don't be fooled into believing that hard work is its own reward. Having time to enjoy life is the reward. Take a stand for sitting back down. Idleness is on the march. Only, y'know, slowly. ___________________________________ All work on this page is copyright Seth Brown. If you are sharing it, please give attribution. If you want to reprint it, please contact me first. |