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Worzels World - Doing the busynes

 

On the casual encounter of local people the first polite enquiry is usually ‘How are ya?’ This is not actually an invitation to explain the particulars of your state of health but is merely a polite greeting. The next question is often ‘Are ya busy?’ Amongst a myriad of false gods worshiped round these parts, work is the pre-eminent deity with money and gossip following close behind. These tainted angels haunt the church of small town New Zealand. 

‘Are ya busy?’ has always been a tough question for me to answer. What I suspect these people are really asking is ‘Is anyone paying you for doing stuff?’ Due to a congenital defect that would these days be diagnosed as ADHD I am by nature ‘busy‘. 

Society too must bear some responsibility for this. Being brought up Catholic didn’t spare me from exposure to a protestant work ethic once prevalent in New Zealand. Back then it was the general expectation that the daylight hours of your average bloke should be filled with some sort of honest endeavour or another. This is perhaps no bad thing in itself but it has led the majority to the overarching presumption that in order to survive we must have a job. I have great respect for people with jobs. I used to have one myself but these days I haven’t the time as there is too much to do.

It would be presumptuous of me to say that I know what I am doing. The more I learn the more I realise I haven’t the faintest idea. The best I can hope for is not to do too much harm or get too much in the way of good things happening. The road to hell, they say, is paved with good intentions, and for once ‘they’ may be right. Well-meaning actions are often merely spanners in Gods works. Yet if I had waited until I knew what I was doing before doing something I would never have done anything at all and looking back on a busy life I’ve done a fair bit. Although I’d have to admit not all of it was good. 

Throughout my years of employment the concepts of work, play and leisure have become increasingly blurred. Work is merely the play I get paid for and leisure is doing such things as writing this article. 

Today’s world is without common values. One mans time may be worth so little that no one will pay him for it yet others receive small fortunes for doing what would, by all practical measures and assessments, appear to be worthless. A recent study illustrated that most jobs done by most people contribute little or nothing to society in general. The study fell short of admitting that such research contributes nothing either. 

Being constantly busy is no guarantee of wealth and many who are slothful and indolent make fortunes by way of slyness, manipulation and the exploitation of others. It is seldom those who perform the most necessary functions who are best rewarded. Indeed it seems that the inverse is more often the case. 

Mankind ‘moving forward’ is in the process of doing what is popularly termed ‘progressing’ but which is more correctly framed elsewhere as self-destruction. This has led to a general increase in business, that being the art of wheedling a dollar out of your fellow man. This has caused a corresponding increase in busy-ness. Which is the amount of time and trouble people go to in order to do it. 

In spite of this frenzy of activity it is hard to see anything useful actually being achieved. Humanity seems to be suffering from a collective nervous disorder and cannot keep still. On the other hand there are often situations that when left alone will sort themselves out.

What is, is. And for all our toil the best we can do is rearrange that which already exists. Any honest appraisal will show that overall we haven’t rearranged them particularly well. The number one stated regret of the terminally ill is that they spent too much time and energy doing what others expected of them. Their second most stated regret was that they worked too much.

A sad fate awaits those who have worshipped at the alter of busyness. When their hour of death comes they will realise they have not lived. They have frittered time away dwelling on details completely missing a bigger picture. Their entire lives spent in the thick of thin things.

Yet being less busy does not mean less productive. The unhurried can become sufficiently wise to know that only worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence. Many are deceived into thinking that what is, is what appears to be – but this is not so. The perceived substance is but the shadow of reality and will pass away as shadows always must when exposed to the light. 

 Feedback? Email prof_worzel@hotmail.com
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