Brain Food #557
The importance of being idle
Thoughts of the day
When was the last time you did nothing? And how long did it last?
An experiment suggested that people would rather receive an electric shock than be left alone in a room with themselves. Inactivity is often associated with failure, indolence, lack of productivity. Yet, the importance of being idle, so often overlooked, is what can help us acquire the clarity and patience needed to reach our goals, or just to make it through another day, by simply staying still, and listening to our needs.
“I have often wondered whether especially those days when we are forced to remain idle are not precisely the days spent in the most profound activity. Whether our actions themselves, even if they do not take place until later, are nothing more than the last reverberations of a vast movement that occurs within us during idle days.
In any case, it is very important to be idle with confidence, with devotion, possibly even with joy. The days when even our hands do not stir are so exceptionally quiet that it is hardly possible to raise them without hearing a whole lot.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters on Life
Still life painting has survived for thousands of years. The earliest known paintings were created in Egypt, in 15th century BCE. Our fascination with stillness has pervaded history, though ironically, even the painters were preoccupied with the very act of painting while capturing a -usually very insignificant- still moment. And yet, during those seemingly insignificant moments is when our most profound ones might also occur; while staring at a green wall, or looking at a basket of eggs, or just sitting at the kitchen table, alone with our thoughts.
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