Wasting time.

Laziness

“A man is much too lazy: he will do a great deal without the proper intensity, or he will do nothing at all while thinking that he is doing something; he will work with intensity on something that does not need intensity, and will let those moments when intensity is imperative pass by him.”

                                             G.I. Gurdjieff

I have to admit that I cringe a little when I read this quote. My book group met here at my house last night, and when I was cleaning up in preparation for them to come, I discovered its cold, hard truth. Just pull out a piece of furniture in my house, and you will see baseboards coated with dust. All the places where I never look, like the tops of things—picture frames, book shelves, the refrigerator---ugh, terrible. And that tile in my bathroom with the hard water stains—forget it! I would much rather write, or sew, or draw pictures than clean my house. Never mind that half of what I do will never see the light of day.

I have a couple of young friends who are into video games and will sit for hours and play them, totally oblivious of the rest of the world, and their precious youth passing them by. I can't think of a bigger waste of time, but then I'm an old lady. Or how about the obsessive physical fitness buff; some of those folks spend three or four hours a day preparing for...what? The biggest biceps? The tightest...whatever. I'm all for fitness, but really, unless you're a defensive lineman in the NFL, four hours a day is not about fitness.

And then there's the computer seeker: people who sit all day and peruse the internet for who knows what. I have one friend who even brings her I-phone to meals and plays internet scrabble while she eating---even when she has guests at the table! And let's not forget the insatiable internet shopper. They are, in my experience, usually the very people who need absolutely nothing, but they shop, shop, shop like a slum dweller who's just discovered the pot at the end of the rainbow. It's a puzzle. Human beings are endlessly intriguing.

There's nothing wrong with wasting time now and then. We all need our down-time and relaxation. It's just when all our juice and concentration is plowed into something utterly meaningless that “lazy” becomes a problem. I think I'll see if I can bring the 'proper intensity' to those bathroom tiles today...ugh.

                                                 In the spirit,

                                                    Jane