Consider Creative Inactivity

Inefficiency is a Virtue

“It's important to be heroic, ambitious, productive, efficient, creative, and progressive, but these qualities don't necessarily nurture the soul. The soul has different concerns, of equal value: downtime for reflection, conversation, and reverie; beauty that is captivating and pleasuring; relatedness to the environs and to people; and an animal's rhythm of rest and activity.”

                      Thomas Moore (The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life)

Our lives today are built for efficiency. We can drive into a gas station, fill up our car, and drive out without ever having to interface with another human being. Remember when someone you knew used to come to your car, and while washing your windshield, would ask, 'how's your mom and them'? Now my windshield is often so dirty I can't see through it and I don't even know a service station attendant by name.

Same is true for banking. You can do everything you need to do on-line or at an ATM. There's even self-check-out at many grocery and hardware stores. I can go for days without speaking to another living human being if I so choose. It's efficient, but it also dulls the mind. Sometimes my voice gets hoarse from lack of use. After a few days of productive and creative singularity, I need some good old conversation, someone to 'chew the fat' with, so to speak. Julie and Liza try to keep me company, but their species is something of a hindrance to interaction.

Our human soul craves contact with others of its kind, with the living environment, and with places of beauty. It's highly inefficient to take that Sunday drive in the country that we used to take; to lollygag along, and stop at farm stands to buy peaches and jaw with whoever is there. But I can tell you, driving those roads around Flat Rock last week gave me back a year of my life. Such a beautiful, cool, green place. When we build-in such non-productive diversions, we come away refreshed, revived and ready to be focused and creative. It's kind of like recess when you were a child; you could run off some pent up energy and come back inside ready to work.

This is the weekend. Why not get out into the woods for a hike or go swimming at the lake. Heck, why not sit on your porch and read a book, take a nap, or invite a friend over for dinner. Too many of us think the only place to go on the weekend is to a bar. That may be one way to kick back, but it's also loud to the point of being abusive, and alcohol in excess is not soul food. Really!

I'm just saying...this weekend, share some beauty with someone you enjoy, talk about what's on your heart, and don't think about work or being productive. You'll be glad you did.

In the spirit,

Jane