3 of 3 - and i quote...

Recently I was lucky enough to get a subscription to Harper's Magazine for my birthday(thanks Kate), and this month's issue had a really cool essay in it that sorta changed my outlook on a lot of things. It's all about the idea that being idle(doing nothing) is evil or wrong or lazy or whatever...Not that leisure is bad (playing poker, watching TV, taking a cruise), just idleness. I think everyone should read the essay but it basically breaks down to the fact that we have been so conditioned to be earning money or building things, that we are no longer allowed to just sit around...and I agree. This a quote I like:

"Leisure is permissible, we understand, because it costs money; idleness is not, because it doesn't. Leisure is focused; whatever thinking it requires is absorbed by a certain task; sinking that putt, making that cast, watching that flat-screen TV. Idleness, on the other hand, has a bad attitude. It doesn't shave; it's not a member of the team; it doesn't play well with others. It thinks too much...so it has to be ostracized."

This is so true; why can't we just sit around and talk or think or get high or whatever? I guess the author is trying to say that just taking time, thinking, and mulling things over should be ok once again. We are flying down the path so fast we can't even see the roses let alone smell them. We need to take time to find joy in life. Are there forces out there that constantly want us to work, build, run errands, accomplish things?? And why do they want to keep us busy?? - That's for another day, but believe me its sinister...

here is my attempt at a bibliography:
Slouka, Mark: Quitting The Paint Factory, Harper's Magazine. November 2004. Vol. 309, No. 1854