Circa 1973. Bachman Turner Overdrive sang this classic tune about working constantly, no matter the task or situation. It does ring true, doesn't it? Readers know I am a list-maker but, even as a list-maker, I feel like I can never catch up. One list simply replaces another.
Today I was part of a conversation about working constantly. The group was comprised of both males and females and I was struck by how each sex thought they were never able to 'finish the to-do list' as one man put it. He attributed his endless work to the tasks his SO kept adding to the list, while the women attributed their constant workload to their day jobs and night jobs as wives and mothers. When a new party entered the conversation (a single, younger male) and asked why no one in the discussion group ever relaxed, the looks he received could have withered all the orchids in the world with one single chilling blast. The curious part of this story is that the chilling-blast looks lasted all of a milli-second then everyone laughed and made jokes about never relaxing. I could see that it was a rather raw topic but no one wanted to delve any further into it.
What I found fascinating about all of the conversation's participants was that, to a person, the most common form of relaxation came from television. Granted, some of the program preferences were vastly different from mine. For instance, I do not find the show, "A Thousand Ways To Die", or some such inane title, interesting. You could not pay me to watch the show beyond the sixty seconds or so that I've see thus far. My SO and I do not see eye-to-eye regarding our television programming tastes but the television is not the only form of relaxation for either one of us.
Perhaps it is a generational difference. I cannot imagine being tied to my TiVo but most of the conversationalists today were frequent TiVo users. In fact, several said they could not possibly 'live' without their TiVos. Several others caught their favorite television shows on their smart phones. While this is not my bailiwick, I can, at least, say that these people are relaxing and that they are not constantly 'takin' care of business.
I hearby declare a moratorium on the never-ending-takin'-care-of-business syndrome. Let us, one and all, eye our dusty pianos, our books-waiting-to-be-read, call the friend for a coffee, or pick the knitting needles and finish that scarf that has been sitting in the basket on the floor next to the sofa.
I'm game if you are!
Ancora imparo
