How is your heart?

[Lodestar]

..."we are human beings, not human doings".

The Disease of Being Busy

I saw a dear friend a few days ago. I stopped by to ask her how she was doing, how her family was. She looked up, voice lowered, and just whimpered: “I’m so busy… I am so busy… have so much going on.”

Almost immediately after, I ran into another friend and asked him how he was. Again, same tone, same response: “I’m just so busy… got so much to do.”

The tone was exacerbated, tired, even overwhelmed.

And it’s not just adults. When we moved to North Carolina about ten years ago, we were thrilled to be moving to a city with a great school system. We found a diverse neighborhood, filled with families. Everything felt good, felt right.

After we settled in, we went to one of the friendly neighbors, asking if their daughter and our daughter could get together and play. The mother, a really lovely person, reached for her phone and pulled out the calendar function. She scrolled… and scrolled… and scrolled. She finally said: “She has a 45-minute opening two and half weeks from now. The rest of the time it’s gymnastics, piano, and voice lessons. She’s just…. so busy.”

Horribly destructive habits start early, really early.

How did we end up living like this? Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we do this to our children? When did we forget that we are human beings, not human doings?

MORE
http://www.onbeing.org/blog/the-disease-of-being-busy/7023

[tridim]

1. I don't live like this, and I'm pretty sure it's why I still get carded in my mid-40's.

OCD is at epidemic levels these days. The cure is to slow down, but our doctors give out heavy drugs instead.

[SheilaT]

2. So true.

It is destructive to be so overscheduled that a kid doesn't have a minute of free time for two and a half weeks. I guess people these days have either never heard the phrase "Stop and smell the roses" or don't understand what it's really saying.

I think this came about for two separate reasons. With the kids, a couple of decades ago parents decided that they had to make sure their kid was doing something every single waking minute of the day. And around that same time, the insidious overworking of many adults took hold. The two trends collided and now it simply doesn't occur to most people there's anything wrong with this.

Me, I like lots of unscheduled time for myself. And I almost always get plenty of sleep, which is why I think my health is so good. I don't admire those who brag about how little sleep they get, because they really are killing themselves.