When I was spending my days in Italy I learned this saying:
Americans live to work...Italians work to live.
In that spirit I'd like to share an essay, The Disease of Being Busy, by Omid Safi . Please, take some slow time to read it.
photo by Tom
"Let us consider the way in which we spend our lives.
This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the locomotive. It interrupts my dreams. There is no sabbath. It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once."
~ Thoreau
Marcel
Definition of busyness:
noun
1. the quality or condition of being busy.
2. lively but meaningless activity.
Examples from the web for busyness:
- Indeed the sky's a huge, open relief from all the busyness below, but that cluttered landscape is itself immense
- He needs to cite busyness with his current job and decline the offer.
- After a certain threshold rate of busyness, one's energy input yields diminishing returns.
Word origin and history for busyness:
1849, first attested in Thoreau, from busy (adj.) + ness. A modern formation made necessary after business evolved away from busy.
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