Recently returned from a deliciously lazy holiday, during which I swapped the noise of Tokyo for a room with a tinkling river running past, where everything as far as the eye could see was green and the most pressing decision was which restaurant to head to for dinner. The weather co-operated – or didn’t, depending on your point of view – so the torrential downpour which lasted about 20 hours from my arrival meant that there was little else to do other than get wrapped up in the cotton yukata provided and read, nap, write, nap, drink tea and… nap. This song got more than a couple of plays, with the line ‘I’m wicked and I’m lazy,’ proving a good mantra for holidaying.
I have a gift for idleness, which often gets overlooked in this fastest of all the fast-paced cities. Forget New York, Tokyo is the city that really doesn’t sleep, unless it is catching a few winks of shuteye on the train, in the coffee shop or slumped on a bench. The first six months of this year have whipped by in a blur of writing, volunteering, working and socialising – all essential and mostly enjoyable – but it was equally as rewarding to drop out from the world for three days and indulge my gift completely.
So I was heartened to read this NY Times opinion piece, in which the writer laments our furiously busy lives and the diminished returns we suffer from living life at such a pace. This quote is of particular interest:
Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body…
Especially in light of this nonsense from British Foreign Secretary William Hague, exhorting business leaders to ‘stop moaning and work harder’ to restart the country’s flat-lining economy. Running ourselves into the ground in the name of increased productivity, more of the same as went before this latest economic crisis, seems only doomed to bring about the same effect a little later on down the line.
Instead, I call for more laziness, more time spent musing, reflecting, pondering. Less time rushing means more time to spend with those we care about, or nose deep in a book, or sitting idly watching the rest of the world race by. It will continue without us, for a time, and those insurmountable problems should seem easier to contend with when using a refreshed and recharged mind.
Start this weekend by indulging your lazy and wicked side.
