Idle hands

 Did your mum tell you that 'The Devil makes work for idle hands'? Have you ever found that when you were sitting on the couch doing nothing, you had a small but perceptible guilty feeling?

I'd like to try unpick the whole business of why many of us mistrust what the Italians call 'Dolce far niente', which literally translates as 'sweetly doing nothing'.

Now I have nothing against industry and getting things done. It feels good when you finally get something finished that you really need to do: the dishes, your tax return, the difficult conversation with someone who is being an arse. All of those things are much worse when put off than when achieved. And also, I know from personal experience that putting things off is far more time consuming in the long run than doing them straight away. 

I use lists for these things, and it is satisfying when you can tick things off. But when you've ticked off everything on the list, why can't we just sit on the couch in complete idleness? What makes it difficult for some of us?

Well 'Protestant work ethic' gets dragged out, though I can tell you that Catholic Irish navvies had a hell of a work ethic too. It could be religious or traditional, so that not being active is seen as wrong. But this is a very modern-world idea (modern in the sense of post-'hunter-gatherer') and if you look at surviving pre-agricultural groups in the Amazon, they are much less busy than we are.

It could be that we have got into a habit of busy so that our bodies feel uncomfortable when we switch off. It could also be that we are trying to impress someone: our partner; our boss; our parents even if deceased. Some people are never happy unless rushed off their feet: "I'm as busy as a one-armed paperhanger!" is my favourite description of it.

Philosophically, it could even be that we can't stand the sound of our own thoughts when we don't have activity to drown them out: a very sad state of affairs. Or our self-image is based on 'If' by Kipling, always trying harder to "be a man, my son" (or the direct female equivalent of that command).

Whatever it is - and despite the fact that I have guiltily stirred myself to write a late blog post- I think we should all have in every week at least one 'Dolce far niente' interlude. Go on, hit the couch now!