It looked like a good idea at first, but I hesitated a lot and in the end I did not add the following quote by Charles Darwin to my database:
A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
Why hesitation? In fact, I quite agree with that; I have always been a very active person, and, in addition, as I travel along the different Ages of Man, I become more and more aware of the gift of life, and its scarcity.
But the quote was somewhat deceiving to me, it did not have the ‘immediate punch’ that I require from any of these ‘wisdom bits’. I can think of at least two causes for this (and of course, I mean no offense to Charlie):
1) Truth, but not an immediate truth
The sentence, as it is, might sound a bit deceiving, like a simple call for busyness. But busyness on its own can have no object (just look around you). The problem is that our spasmodic society has linked “wasting time” in our brains with “doing nothing”. Which is not true: Idleness without an object, besides a way to prove you appreciate yourself, is sometimes necessary between activity periods, like breathing or heartbeats have two stages that depend one upon each other. Notice here I am not talking about “reflection” or “meditation” periods, but about doing nothing, letting yourself go, slowing down, just being. So, in short, I guess in order to make the quotation work for me, I’d need a hammer big enough to crush that ugly link between “wasting time” and “inactivity”.
2) Some people never get it
I did not thought they existed, but I have met some people who rest like real animals, with all the appearance of being dead. These people usually work as animals too, without the least question, and stand loads I would not be capable to even look at. I used to despise them, but as usually it was only a mask for fear: this kind of people strike me with the vertigo of void, of death. It is people who works at a wavelength absolutely different from mine.
And I guess this kind of people would use any explicit call for inactivity as an alibi for their stone-like rest, for entering in their creepy “off mode”.
It is also true that the quotation is isolated from its context, maybe Darwin proceeded later to explain the virtues of “creative leisure” (an expression unintelligible to many mortals); or maybe it is just that he wrote from a different time, from a world where idleness did not need to be encouraged (loads of British films and BBC series have forged in my mind an idyllic image of cottages, long hours of walk with a book in one hand, tea before cricket, guests arriving in chariots to stay for some weeks, figure the whole picture…)
So the message for this post is simple, but it is good to repeat it now and then because it never gets enough exposure: slow down. Calm. Do by not doing. Everything conspires against the tree-like patterns of your body, your heart and your mind.
But on the other hand, never sleep like a stone. Because stones don’t dream.
How creative is your leisure? When was the last time you did nothing and loved it? Have you some advice for those who feel a bit “stony” sometimes?
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