'NUTHIN T'DO”
I often meet with a confused mixture of amazement and disappointment when I hear people say: ”I have nothing to do!”
How can such a situation come about? Is it possible for a person to live a life totally apart from inventiveness, ambition and a willingness to improve one's lot – even to a minimal standard? How can anyone - young or old – arrive at a state in which they feel that everything that can be done has been accomplished?
One might expect to hear a young child make such a claim and we would try to suggest something to challenge such a child. We lead them to think of another game they might want to try and the momentary lapse of interest. Young people adults are supposed to outgrow such self-pity demonstrations.
The person who can say “I have nothing to do.” is seeking help in some cases, but, more often,they don't realize they are really confessing a weakness of character. By merely being in your presence, they are obligated to undertake whatever is needed to meet your needs. They have an automatic requirement to be pleasant in your company; or, if the situation demands it, to be as combative and physically active as combative as possible.. If another person is nearby, you have something to do. We are community creatures and our actions affect others about us. A do-less individual can be the proverbial “bad apple” which spoils the barrel of good fruit.
To shut oneself off from others is a self-sustained form of punishment and we need to make sure we are not, perhaps unwittingly, building such a self-imposed, self-administered form of self-punishment. Years ago the advertising world tried to convinced us that we could fit in anywhere if we learned to play piano, then, someone realized that the letters “B” and “O” could be combined to form something called “Body Odor”, and powders, pastes, pellets, patches, potents, poultices - in an unending accumulation of aberrations have followed in efforts to avoid such a condition.st l
If you find yourself tempted to give voice to the sentiment “I have nothing to do!” you are not only hurting yourself but you are insulting anyone else you know. You are, in fact, saying that you find them to be less than nothing - real duds, who do not inspire you at all by their being present.
A.L.M. December 19, 2004 [c409wds]
