I ran across a blog the other day titled “Essays in
Idleness.” I thought it might be
interesting so I read it, it wasn’t. The
idea intrigued me, though, so I did what any red-blooded person would do: I Googled
it! My version of Word doesn’t include “Google.” Time to upgrade.
Back to idleness.
It seems Yoshida Kendo, 1284-1350, wrote a book entitled Essays in Idleness. Contemplating idleness isn’t a new
concept. Life must have been busy back
then too. Kendo couldn’t understand
anyone being depressed about being idle, with nothing to distract him. Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862, suggested, “Many
men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are
after.”
Kendo further suggested that time spent away from the ways
of the world, and even people, can be good for the soul.
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If you follow the ways of the
world, your heart will be drawn to its sensual defilements and easily led
astray; if you go among people, your words will be guided by others’
responses rather than come from your heart.
There is nothing firm or stable in
a life spent between larking about together and quarreling exuberant one
moment, aggrieved and resentful the next.
You are forever pondering pros and cons, endlessly absorbed in questions
of gain and loss. And on top of
delusion comes drunkenness, and in that drunkenness you dream.”
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Kendo wrote at a time when dynasties were rising and falling
across Japan, but also during a period when Zen Buddhism was gaining
popularity. Perhaps the people were
ready to listen to someone who called for a bit of idleness. They were disruptive times.
America experienced disruption in Thoreau’s time as well,
leading to a war between the states. He
suggested that we frittered away our lives with details and called on us to
simplify. He had the advantage of living
on a quiet pond without cell phones.
The political and social upheavals of the past must have
been very much less contentious than today’s machinations. How could they compare? Alternatively, do I have too much time on my
hands, spending most of it on the high-speed political raceway? Really, though, didn’t it use to seem more
quiet, our political lives?
Kendo was correct, time spent quarreling exuberant can be
exhausting. I need some idle time. I need a week without MSNBC or Fox News or
CNN or even the 5:30 evening local news.
Besides, I need to catch up on a few good movies. I’ll check the calendar to find a week when
I’m free or there isn’t any important announcements expected out of Washington.
I’m not sure I know why, but this may be the year I take up
fly-fishing!
