Why the Big Urge to Keep Busy?

By CHARLES M.GUTHRIE
Of the editorial page staff
Published by the StarTribune
November 22, 1958


   THE MORE leisure time we have the more we have to do.
   This is one of the great paradoxes of our time. Like a thirsty man spurning water, we cannot seem to get hold of the ease that's around for the taking.
   Thus it is that the ulcer is almost epidemic, and heart disease and mental instability increasing.
   You can understand why a person with a burning sense of mission, or with a goading desire for wealth and prominence, should drive himself.

   BUT WHY should the average mortal, content with his no-tail-fins car and indifferent to fame or a ranch house in the suburbs, be caught up in the swirl? Too many of us feel guilty whenever we catch ourselves indulging in idle contemplation. We equate loafing with a sinful waste of time. This is too bad. Loafing used to be one of the nobler and more relaxing art forms.
   We are at the apogee of a mental cycle which demands that we do something incessantly, with activity an end in itself. If not working, we must play. If we sit down we must read, not for sheer pleasure but for profit.
   Other permissible sitting-down activities are driving a car, watching television, rowing a boat, playing bridge or doing needle-point. We cannot simply sit down and speculate on how we'll pay off the mortgage. That is indolence.


WHENEVER I get one job finished and start groping for another, I try to shake off the mood by lying down. But it often persists. And when one, as phlegmatic as I, is beset by repeated unrest, you can be sure the malady is obviously widespread.
   For a couple of months one time, after realizing that certain jobs listed for execution remained undone from year to year, I kept a list of "things to be done." This would stimulate production.
   Instead it bred frustration and despair. Too many things marked for accomplishment still remained undone and the list only emphasized my ineptitude.

   THIS PRESSURE to do things, this intolerance of meditation, does not, I believe, defy explanation.
   It has come about because man's genius and productive capacity have provided too many things, too many facilities for recreation, too much sporting equipment, too many avenues for leisure that is leisure no longer. Competition for the sale of leisure-time accouterments is as fierce as competition for anything.
   Competition, in fact, is scattered all over the place. One automobile doesn't merely vie with another. It competes with boats, television sets, power mowers, freezers, vacation trips. The refrigerator competes with the furnace and carpeting. Should you buy that shotgun or do that cement work, buy rose bushes or garage paint, golf clubs or a suit?


THE PRESSURE is on to buy and to do--to live it up. The battle is on for your time as well as your money. You're led to believe that you should fish and hunt, like Joe does. You must play golf and ski and swim. You have to catch up with your reading and television viewing so you'll know what to talk about. And you must sand those floors and get at that job in the den--and have time for some concerts and plays.
   The catch, of course, is that the day has but 24 hours, approximately eight of which should be devoted to sleep. How sad that nature made it so!
   And how sad, too, that we haven't enough sense to be selective, to do that which we enjoy and which is compelling and enriching. If we didn't spread ourselves so thin we'd have time to dream.
   Then we'd live longer--and have more to live for.


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