Something For Nothing

   Doing nothing has been frowned upon in my family - and in many others - for many, many years, generations even.  My grandparents and parents would speak in disparaging tones about any family member that was lazy, good for nothing, no- count or generally unmotivated, and, as a result, we grew up believing that doing nothing was, if not sinful, the next thing to it.  My grandmother could quote quite a few Bible verses from memory, and one of them was Ecclesiastes 10:18 “Through slothfulness the roof deteriorates, and a house leaks because of idleness.” We were warned repeatedly by both parents, and often loudly, about finding something to do or having something to do found for us.  We almost always decided that whatever we chose would be better than folding clothes, making the bed or sweeping a floor or fixing a leaky roof so we chose to be outside and away from adult company when presented with the choice. Outside we reverted to free range children and were not subjected to adult supervision until after the streetlights came on.

     Doing nothing, I have found, is generally harder than one might think. Since retirement, I have found that it gets easier with practice and diligent application of intentional nothingness. Though often initially accompanied by guilty thoughts like “maybe I should be mowing the lawn” or “perhaps I should fold clothes or vacuum before I sit down,”  I have managed to build a protective aura around my recliner that - through many weeks of serious and intense training - now allows me to fall instantly under the spell of the nap monster seconds after sitting down without thoughts or worries of what may or may not have been alternative activities.

     It’s often easy for the uninitiated to confuse rest and recuperation with doing nothing; the differences might seem small but are significant to understanding and enlightenment. Like the differences in lollygagging and dillydallying, intent and mindset are key. Doing nothing in this sense is completely unrelated, for instance, to every kid’s first answer to the inevitable question from every adult when they hear an ominous (to them) quiet from an area where kids are supposed to be.  “What are you doing?” the grownups ask, with a slight tinge of alarm and a great deal of suspicious undertone. If you have ever been a child, you know the expected answer regardless of the reality. This is not what I mean here.

     I was surprised to discover that some countries have not only descriptive terms but actual methods of belief (with detailed instructions) that, believe it or not, encourage doing nothing, and suggest doing nothing as a healthy and desirable alternative, in some cases, to doing something. The Dutch practice “niksen” (the literal translation is “doing nothing”) with the restriction that you can actually do something - listen to music, staring vacantly at the room or area you happen to find yourself in at the moment or simply hanging out as long as the activity is without a purpose. It’s a teenager’s dream.  When your mom yells (in Dutch of course) “what are you doing up there?” you can respond “practicing niksen, Mom!” with a slightly insolent tone in your voice and an unseen roll of the eyes and not get slapped into next week with a wooden shoe.

     Reducing the accumulated negative effects of stress and burnout associated with modern life is the goal of niksen, and research has shown emotional benefits like reduced anxiety and physical advantages such as slowing the aging process and strengthening the immune system.  An unexpected benefit can be, believe it or not, new ideas. Since the brain is always processing information regardless of how the physical body is engaged, doing niks (nothing) can allow the extra available processing power to come up with solutions for pending problems or even provide an increase in creativity and artistic endeavors.  Research also suggests that a “wandering mind” can also increase the minds’ abilities and success in creative problem solving. 

     In Italy, the concept of dolce far niente (sweetness of doing nothing) is the idea of finding pleasure in the non-constructive activity of your choosing.  You can sit on a park bench, soak in a tub, scroll on your phone, sit at a restaurant talking or even borrow a spare recliner and take a nap. I would also think reading, sports shows, binge watching TV shows, walking in the forest or a quiet conversation with friends or family would fit this concept, with certain restrictions; TV news, textbooks, or self-improvement books, TV talk shows or watching The View would not. 

     The Chinese have been creating philosophies for all occasions for several thousand years, and have a significant head start on much of the world in civilized longevity if nothing else. Generals from every country, for example, still study Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” and pretty much everybody knows at least one quote from Confucious (every house guest brings you happiness - some when they arrive and some when they leave). Lao Tzu, another of the “top 10” in every list of Chinese philosophers summed up his thoughts on doing nothing with “Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing,” though I doubt he knew it as “niksen.” 

     When I was in college, way back when dirt was new, we were practicing niksen, but like Lao Tzu, did not know it by its Dutch name. After a long week of thinking about classes and studying and tests and even small amounts of active participation in all three, we would spend at least a day or two “vegging out” in our feeble attempts to recover our mental and physical capacity to begin the grinding process of 3 hours of classes a day and all they entail over again the next week. “Vegging out” was the process of doing as little as possible beside watching “Green Acres” and “Dialing for Dollars” imitating vegetables (hence the name) with little or no physical activity or active mental processes beyond those necessary to eat chips and candy or order a pizza or send someone after more…never mind, you get the idea. We used it as a recovery method from the grinding and cruel pressures of college life.  It must have worked.

     Once I graduated college and joined the working world, life changed, and not necessarily for the better.  Yes, I had a full-time job, and yes, there were many, many hours of uncompensated time I spent before and after work and on weekends during what should have been recovery time or relaxation time, working. It’s pretty simple to look back and see that I had fallen into the same trap many of us do; I had bought into the belief that “time is money” and that all the time I wasn’t working, even when I wasn’t being paid to do it, was necessary not just to be good at what I did but the best.  It was a driving force, and nobody made me do it other than myself, and I can honestly say that the investment of time in the lives of children was paid back in many thousands of ways that turned out to be far more important than money. I think the difficult part of allowing myself to not work was so hard because spending leisure time felt like I was not doing something I should be doing in order to be better at what I did. The paradox was that I was an excellent worker but a darn poor supervisor of me as a worker. Me supervising me was like Simba working for Scar - not necessarily a great arrangement. I could have been a lot nicer to myself and still been a good teacher, so now I’m making up for not doing nothing much sooner.

     Mama would have reminded me of the old saying about moderation in all things, but I've got a lot of nothing to catch up on, and a shorter time in which nothing can be done, and that’s something I intend to rectify, so if you see me doing what appears to be nothing, I’m actually practicing a potent combination of niksen and dolce far niente, so that’s something after all. There’s really nothing to it.