Skip to main content

On Being Busy


This isn't my writing and I take no credit for it. Rather, the following highlights come from Tim Kreider who pens an online column for the New York Times, and most recently wrote one called "The 'Busy' Trap".

His writing captured EXACTLY how I feel, and it's worth sharing and recognizing in our own lives - Every. Single Day.


- - - - - - - - -

"If you live in America in the 21st century you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are.

Almost everyone I know is busy.

The present hysteria is not a necessary or inevitable condition of life; it’s something we’ve chosen, if only by our acquiescence to it.

I can’t help but wonder whether all this histrionic exhaustion isn’t a way of covering up the fact that most of what we do doesn’t matter.

Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day.

I’ve always understood that the best investment of my limited time on earth was to spend it with people I love. I suppose it’s possible I’ll lie on my deathbed regretting that I didn’t work harder and say everything I had to say, but I think what I’ll really wish is that I could have one more beer with Chris, another long talk with Megan, one last good hard laugh with Boyd. Life is too short to be busy."

 - - - - - - - - -

Of course, this writing also makes me reflect on the Simple Beauties in this world and those Magic Moments, which I've written about before. Hopefully, we can all find them as much as possible.

 Props to Kerri Sparling for posting a link to this column on her Facebook page and alerting me to its awesomeness.
Labels:

Comments

tracy.rose@healthline.com said…
Hi,

Healthline is interested in contributing a guest post to thediabeticscornerbooth.com. We would be open to contributing any blog that would be of interest to your readers. Healthline bloggers have been featured on a variety of sites including:

Washington Times: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tango-mind-and-emotion/2012/aug/10/how-healthy-choices-easy/
Natural News: http://www.naturalnews.com/036515_diabetes_strawberries_prevention.html
Patch.com: http://strongsville.patch.com/blog_posts/where-and-what-to-eat-in-cleveland-to-beat-the-winter-blues

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Warm Regards,
Tracy
January 8, 2013 at 4:58 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to the End of the World?

Well, did anyone think this is what 2020 would look like? Global pandemic and worldwide public health emergency, everything shutting down and a potential economic collapse on the horizon. Holy fuck. ' A "Pandemic (in Quarantine) Playlist on my Spotify is now a thing, and my own remote worklife now in its 8th year has taken on an eeerie new spin. As are my watchlists full of dystopian and post-apocalyptic TVs and movies for streaming in these strange times. All of my work travel and conferences for the spring have been nixed, and we're all watching closely to see what the impact may be for summer events. What about my "underlying health condition" that is type 1 diabetes? So far, so good. No signs of anything astray. As I've shared over on DiabetesMine, I have been using the Tandem t:slim X2 device since mid-October 2019. That followed three-and-a-half years of Multiple Daily Dosing with pens and Afrezza inhaled insulin insulin. I starte...
62 comments
Read more

A Writer's Pen

A writer carries a pen. That is the way it is. For as long as I recall, that's how it has been. Moments have appeared, of course, where that vow failed. Where I did not have a pen to write with. Where the pen was in my hand, but it didn't write. Moments in history are marked by the written word. Journalists know and live this truth*.... ( yes, truth matters. Facts matter. Alternate versions of both do not **.) ... [ the fact that we have to emphasize this in 2020-21 is ridiculous, but the reality exists ]. I carry a pen. Because I'm a writer. Because the written word matters. Because facts and details matter. Context is everything. Painting a picture with my words is what I've done, professionally and personally, for so long. Words have painted a picture, opened a portal into the heart and mind. I've read what others have written with their own pens, even if those pens aren't physical but mental and those words have materialized from digital tools. The idea of w...
33 comments
Read more

Flapping the Gums

No time for my chatty-typing fingers to engage you today. I'm off to the dentist's office for a dreaded appointment. Thanks to the wonders of D-enduced periodontal disease, this should be a visit full of poking, prodding, pain, and likely some bleeding. Great times. Not looking forward to this visit. Or the next more painful one. I see soup in my future. Maybe Easy Mac. But, I digress. That's all fodder for a future blog post. In the meantime today, talk amongst yourselves. Flap those online gums in the blogging world. And remember to brush and floss.
40 comments
Read more