Five Minute Friday :: Lazy

• Five Minute Friday :: Lazy Linkup


What a great prompt! Are cats lazy? Or do they just not want to do what anyone says? Then again, cats sleep many many hours each day; is that laziness or is it preparation for the hunt? Getting ready to be extra adorable?

What is lazy, anyway? Relaxed? Shiftless? Pointless? Simply disinterested? Undisciplined, maybe? I did a quick check of its etymology and I didn't care for what I read.

Or has lazy become a word related to rest that often leads to rejuvenation? A rest in music may seem like absence of sound, but rests are necessary for the music to happen.

As Kate pointed out, contemporary Western society admires action and active people; too many of us do our best to become human doings rather than human beings. She used the word, "productivity." I've mentioned human doing-ness too many times on this blog. Like many, I admire my own productivity in all my endeavors. I don't necessarily make a formal readable list as I accomplish whatever it is or whatever they are, but I tally them in my head and want to do better next time. I want to do more the next time.

I don't know that it's been a header before, but this time I've used one of many versions of one of several paintings I made of the beach house in the town of Truro on the vacation peninsula of Cape Cod. You could have – probably would have – called those times lazy. We slept latish, lounged on the beach, rappelled down sand dunes, and laughed like crazy as we did it. We took a few jaunts to the tourist section of nearby Provincetown. Each year I drove back to Boston late Sunday afternoon to get ready to be present and productive during our upcoming summer program.

As I typed that last sentence, I realized the kind of unfocussed, unplanned laziness I described is a good way to get ready for the next step that's not only productivity—it's also presence.
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