Crazy Busy?
This weekend, while David was still away, Cal and I spent the weekend with David's folks in Buren. Cal had a bit of a cold so it was nice to have a couple extra pairs of hands to help out with him. While we were there I came across a great article in the NY Times about busy-ness, or the appearance of busy-ness. The opening paragraph rang so true for me. This was just how the conversation with my hairdresser began the other day...
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.”
Isn't this true? I'm totally guilty of answering with that stock response.The article goes on to describe how people are terrified of idleness, and yet idleness is essential to creativity, and it's in those quiet or nothing moments where the mind wanders towards curiosity and daydreams happen. <Insert Carrie voice-over> and it got me thinking, do I have enough idleness in my life? Of course I bloody don't. I'm a mum and as Mrs Woog from Woogsworld says, the moment you become a mum, you'd don't just become a mum, you become a busy mum. No-one can contest the actual busy-ness of mothering, but there are moments of quiet during my day, and you know how I fill them? Facebook. It is starting to bother me that all those potential little thought-starter moments of idleness are being sucked up by social media.
Facebook has definite value in my life - keeping in contact with relatives and as a convenient newsfeed, but I overuse it. Checking it has become a knee-jerk reaction whenever I encounter an idle moment. It's like checking the fridge. I'll go back there 3 minutes after a previous desperate visit, just to make sure I didn't miss something tasty. When Cal starts creche in the next fortnight, I'm hoping to have more time to work on a longer kid's story I've been writing, and so I want to give my brain a chance to start being creative again. So for the next 2 weeks. No Facebook. I've seen other people dip out of it for a while, and I'm excited to try it too.
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.”
Isn't this true? I'm totally guilty of answering with that stock response.The article goes on to describe how people are terrified of idleness, and yet idleness is essential to creativity, and it's in those quiet or nothing moments where the mind wanders towards curiosity and daydreams happen. <Insert Carrie voice-over> and it got me thinking, do I have enough idleness in my life? Of course I bloody don't. I'm a mum and as Mrs Woog from Woogsworld says, the moment you become a mum, you'd don't just become a mum, you become a busy mum. No-one can contest the actual busy-ness of mothering, but there are moments of quiet during my day, and you know how I fill them? Facebook. It is starting to bother me that all those potential little thought-starter moments of idleness are being sucked up by social media.
Facebook has definite value in my life - keeping in contact with relatives and as a convenient newsfeed, but I overuse it. Checking it has become a knee-jerk reaction whenever I encounter an idle moment. It's like checking the fridge. I'll go back there 3 minutes after a previous desperate visit, just to make sure I didn't miss something tasty. When Cal starts creche in the next fortnight, I'm hoping to have more time to work on a longer kid's story I've been writing, and so I want to give my brain a chance to start being creative again. So for the next 2 weeks. No Facebook. I've seen other people dip out of it for a while, and I'm excited to try it too.
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| Less Facebook. More Swings! |
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