In Defense of Sloth

[☆ moxieflux66 ☆]

Merriam Webster defines sloth as:

 

A. Disinclination to action or labor

B. Spiritual inaction or inactivity (i.e. deadly sin of sloth)

 

 

The bible, of course, has many things to say on the subject, but since my Bible isn't here with me and it is, after all a discussion involving laziness, I'll leave it up to all of you to fill in the blanks. Thank you in advance for looking it all up for me!

 

So is being 'apparently' slothful the same as being merely physically inactive? Or is something going on that's not so apparent?

 

Maybe that person is thinking. Thinking takes time, may involve staring at the walls, not moving or something else that, to the untrained eye, might be mistaken as sloth or laziness.

 

When I am slothful, which I frequently am, I'm usually Thinking. Or daydreaming. Or some other mental entertainment that 1. Doesn't cost anything. 2. Is all my own form of creativity. 3. Isn't hurting anyone else. 4. Might result in a masterpiece of artwork, writing, solving a problem. 5. Lots of other advantages (please feel free to add here).

 

“Idle hands are the Devil's (whatever)”. Is that what the Bible says? The old 'bootstrap' bullshit, in modern vernacular?

 

I've known people in my life who are constantly in motion. They're so busy they can't give themselves a break for love nor money. I'm talking about the original 'bootstrap' people (usually post-Depression era people), people who survived with that hard work and sacrifice) but trust me, they're no happier than anyone else. I guess it's a hard habit to break.

 

My mentor and some of his friends would engage in what they called 'Laziness contests' to see who could do it best. Usually, we had the benefit of serious hangovers to help us out but not always. We had a lot of fun laughing (if headaches allowed) to help us out with that.

 

How much time do you let yourself just Be? My mentor frequently asked, “Can't you be alone with your own thoughts?”, especially while he was reading something and I was bored. It did make me think, “Why can't I?” As a result, I practiced and once I had permission (from myself) I got better at it. And I never went back.

 

Of course, like all good things, too MUCH sloth isn't the way either, but I always like a good balance of the two.

 

And always, ALWAYS allow for laughter, as much as possible, and including cultivating the ability to laugh at yourself. There's always time for that. Any other thoughts out there? 

 

[older]

6 hours ago, moxieflux66 said:

When I am slothful, which I frequently am, I'm usually Thinking.

But thinking is action and therefore not sloth. A quote I can't quickly attribute is "When a writer is looking out the window, he is working." I know this to be true as I've written three books and had to isolate myself while working because if a family member saw me looking off they'd not realize what I was doing and interrupt me and destroy my thoughts. Sometimes a whole paragraph would appear in my head at once and if anything interfered my getting it down on paper it would disappear like the Cheshire cat.

[◊ Weezer ◊]

1 hour ago, older said:

if a family member saw me looking off they'd not realize what I was doing and interrupt me and destroy my thoughts. Sometimes a whole paragraph would appear in my head at once and if anything interfered my getting it down on paper it would disappear like the Cheshire cat.

I can certainly identify with that!   And it frequently happens in my house, even when a certain other person can obviouusly see I am busy typing.  But that is getting personal and off subject.  

 

8 hours ago, moxieflux66 said:

 

So is being 'apparently' slothful the same as being merely physically inactive? Or is something going on that's not so apparent?

 

 

I always saw it as not doing things that obviously need to be done, when you had no good excuse for not doing it.  The defination when I Googled it simply said, "lazy".