Good for Nothing.

There are days when one is struck by the bleakness of all things.  Days when we feel goaded into a frenzy of activity for the simple reason that we feel we should be doing something.  If we aren’t doing anything . . . then what is our purpose?  From the corner looking on, much human activity looks pointless.  It seems to bear no productive or positive or meaningful end result.  The purpose appears to keep people busy, to give folk something to do.  It is becoming increasingly a matter of morals.  To do or not to do.  We can’t have people just sitting around doing nothing.  They should be doing . . .  something.  People need to be busy, people should be busy because, well . . . 

But what can anyone be doing or producing that someone else is not already doing perfectly adequately and in sufficient quantity?  There is it appears an  overwhelming surplus of activity.  Busyness, creating friction, creating heat, smoke and then fire - a not so spontaneous combustion consuming oxygen at an alarming rate.  In that world the person sitting around doing nothing ,makes a contribution to society at least as valuable than the man spinning himself into a frenzy trying to accomplish everything.

The person who does nothing is at peace.  He goes quietly and creates no wreckage.  He burns no excess of fuel or energy.  He leaves plenty for others.  He is selfless in his quietude.    The person who does everything is driven by a dangerous cocktail of fear and greed, stirred and disguised as ambition.  That person creates havoc, waste and chaos.  He leaves devastation in his wake.  There is only the ego at work on itself, agitating, inflating, imposing it’s will onto everything and everyone.  That person has an insatiable appetite for activity and attention and for possession.  There is no need for his excesses but he refuses to be empty-handed.  What a terrifying burden.  No wonder that person tries so hard to force it on to others.