The Challenge

The challenge with not working is not working. Because I am "semi-retired" my work paraphernalia surrounds me. The difference is that instead of doing about three features a day, I am doing one or two and occasionally none at all.

Now, I'm not saying that this is a bad thing. Far from it - it's quite desirable actually. It's the issue of getting my head around it. I still have moments - quite a few of them if I'm going to be honest - of thinking that I "should" be doing something more constructive than sitting in front of my computer playing spider solitaire.

But should I? Why do I feel guilty when I am "wasting time." And how do we define wasting time anyway? Is it wasting if I'm perfectly content to do nothing. Isn't it a greater waste of time to be working at twenty jobs at once, frantically trying to hit deadlines and hating every minute of it? I see so many people who are very busy getting things done - moving paper from one pile to another and watching the clock and waiting, waiting, waiting for the day to be over. That's a waste of time.

Time is precious. It's also relative and I could debate its very existence but  as I go through my very human and ordinary day, I move through time as we know it and have defined it.

It's time (there's that word again) to truly enjoy doing nothing and to do nothing guilt free. I notice though that the phrase "do nothing" has the word "do" in it and therein lies part of the problem. So let me re-phrase this. It's time for me to perfect the art of being idle.

Doesn't that have a much better ring to it? As in, "the idle rich."

Move over, idle rich, I'm joining your ranks.