Why do you think everyone has to stress how busy they are all the time? I do it for sure. I feel like people are often trying to out-busy each other. It's not like there's any award for how busy you are, or like people are going to admire you for being busy. It's like the small consolation for feeling like you don't have control over your time. Very small indeed, in fact, not really satisfying at all. I am on a big self-help kick (which is almost always a sign of unhappiness, right?), so maybe I will try to substitute the word "happy" for "busy". And maybe it will be like when you try to force yourself to smile and you start to actually feel happy.
That reminds me of a thought I always have, about how often people are trying to blast music out of their cars to seem cool, and how rare it is that any person who hears the music blasting will in fact think that that music is cool. Kind of a sad disconnect, and one that is occurring millions of times a day all over the country.
I have tomorrow off to do setup for the Verge dinner during the day. So, yeah, I'm really, really happy this week. It's working!
Nice post. I jotted the bit about blasting music in my notebook. A
ReplyDeletedonnee for a short story? The same idea crosses my mind every evening when the windows of my house rattle from the kid in the Tahoe driving by, but I've never really reflected on it as you have.
As for busy people, have you seen the short essay in grist about the Medium Chill?
http://www.grist.org/living/2011-06-28-the-medium-chill
--knowcebo
Shiftless by Raymond Carver
ReplyDeleteThe people who were better than us were comfortable.
They lived in painted houses with flush toilets.
Drove cars whose year and make were recognizable.
The ones worse off were sorry and didn't work.
Their strange cars sat on blocks in dusty yards.
The years go by and everything and everyone gets replaced.
But this much is still true-I never liked work.
My goal was always to be shiftless.
I saw the merit in that.
I liked the idea of sitting in a chair in front of your house
for hours,
doing nothing but wearing a hat and drinking cola.
What's wrong with that?
Drawing on a cigarette from time to time.
Spitting.
Making things out of wood with a knife.
Where's the harm there?
Now and then calling the dogs to hunt rabbits.
Try it sometime. Once in a while hailing a fat, blond kid like me and saying,
'Don't I know you?'
Not, 'What are you going to be when you grow up?'
-Conwad
dude, I was just reading Raymond Carver poetry LAST NIGHT. That's weird.
ReplyDeleteWhat?! That's a crazy coincidence. Maybe it's a sign that you should drink more.
ReplyDelete-Wad
I like that, although I think he had quite a work ethic when it came to writing. In the book I'm reading he talks about being a janitor at Mercy Hospital in Sac, and about how it was a great gig because he worked 3 hours, got paid for 8, and then came home and wrote short stories late at night.
ReplyDeleteI really like that Conwad.
ReplyDeleteWork's never done much for me, and I don't care for being busy. It's always been my aspiration to be one of the paisano's in a Steinbeck novel. I like wine. It could totally work out for me.
jamattack!
This just inspired me to quit! See you in a few minutes.
ReplyDelete-miller