When I was spending my days in Italy I learned this saying:

Americans live to work…Italians work to live.

In that spirit I'd like to share an essay, The Disease of Being Busy, by Omid Safi . Please, take some slow time to read it.

 

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photo by Tom

 

"Let us consider the way in which we spend our lives.

This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the locomotive. It interrupts my dreams. There is no sabbath. It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once."

~ Thoreau

 

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 Marcel

 

Definition of busyness:

noun

1. the quality or condition of being busy.
2. lively but meaningless activity.
 
Examples from the web for busyness:
  • Indeed the sky's a huge, open relief from all the busyness below, but that cluttered landscape is itself immense
  • He needs to cite busyness with his current job and decline the offer.
  • After a certain threshold rate of busyness, one's energy  input yields diminishing returns.

[source]

 

Word origin and history for busyness:
 
1849, first attested in Thoreau, from busy (adj.) + ness. A modern formation made necessary after business evolved away from busy.
 
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