What are you busy about?

Posted on 19 Aug 2016 by Melba Christie at Poemattic

“It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is what are we busy about?” – Henry D. Thoreau

What are we busy about? Are we busy counting all the leaves on that beloved tree in our backyard? What are we busy about? Are we busy stacking pennies for the proverbial rainy day? What are we busy about? I have been busy thinking about time. It bothers me that people say there’s not enough time in the day to carry out whatever it is that must be accomplished. Technology and the inventor’s ingenuity have given us so many tools for us to save time doing stuff. Think about it. Yet we never seem to have time for much. So what is it that keeps us busy? Our work occupies much of our time. We work to fulfill our goals for the future. We are willing to work overtime to make more money so that we can accumulate wealth to spend our time in the future worry free. We have to make time for our daily chores such as laundry, cooking, cleaning, and getting ourselves organized. But when you have people who do that stuff for you, then why do we still say we are too busy. Some people are just busy in their minds. They think they are busy but they are not. They are only busy worrying about being too busy. So then, what are we busy about? Most of us are always in a rush to get somewhere because we do not have time. Some people said to me, “I am glad you have the time to write.” They make me feel guilty about it as if though I have this arsenal of time that I am not sharing with them. Is it that we lack organization or do not know how to manage our time? Again what are we so busy about?

Here is an interesting thought by Eric Hoffer:

“The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life.When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else – we are the busiest people in the world.”

I do not know if the time I spend thinking about time and being busy is good use of my time. I dread not being busy and being bored. I feel that time is so precious to be misused and that keeping busy must be a good thing. I guess I am most fearful of when people are too busy for me. Perhaps I am selfish but I do not want my children to be so busy that they cannot take time out for old mom. I do not think that I have ever been too busy for them and if I have then I will take this opportunity to apologize.

Socrates said, “beware the barrenness of a busy life.” I want busy to mean productive. I do not want to be “busy dying” and I do not want to die not being busy enough. Do I make sense?

In the event that I have confused you. I want to leave you with some quotes from my favorite poets and authors that I collected during my free time this very busy week.

“The busy have no time for tears.”
Lord Byron

“Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.”

-Jane Austen

“An artist is a creature driven by demons. He doesn’t know why they choose him and he’s usually too busy to wonder why.

-William Faulkner