The Busyness Epidemic

We like to be busy.

Being busy shields us from many of the basic fears that loom in the back of our minds on a daily basis.

Staying busy ensures that we feel important and valuable.

‘I have a lot to do’, we tell ourselves, ‘I must be important’.

Staying busy is satisfying.

‘What a good day! I had a lot to do and got a lot done.’

Staying busy keeps our minds off other matters that may be more important.

‘I should perhaps explore this fear I’ve been feeling recently. But right now, I have too much to do.’

Here is the problem:

Being busy is not inherently virtuous.

In fact, it seems that busyness can, in many ways, act as a distraction (not unlike what we discussed in Distraction and Escape). The key difference lies in the way the culprits that misled us in Distraction and Escape were obvious, while busyness is distraction masquerading as virtue.

It even seems that being busy is applauded by society.

And we long for the acceptance which that provides.

The danger lies in us staying so busy that, as our lives come to an end, we find that all we’ve truly done is wish for them to pass us by.

Marcus Aurelius once wrote, ‘It’s not death that man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live’.

How many of us bury ourselves beneath piles of busywork for fear of living?

To live is to wrestle with God and dance for joy.

It is to discover oneself and seek truth.

To live is to face fear and summon courage.

It is to challenge old ways and forge new paths.

To live is to fall and rise again.

It is to be ridiculed and stand your ground.

But we fear living.

And we would rather stay busy.

'Beneath the pine trees' - just me pretending to think