When we hear the word “idle,” different annotations can come to mind. Such a word might bring up thoughts of unemployed people who make no effort to find work or people who always come up with a way to skirt around a job. We believe that an idle person accomplishes nothing, or at the very least, nothing of significance to himself or herself or to society. In the common American mind, idleness is not far from, or perhaps is no different from, laziness. However, Samuel Johnson offered a different perspective of idleness when he said, “As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of busy.”
American society looks down its nose at idleness. It is easy to subconsciously judge the stay-at-home mom and out-rightly judge the homeless or unemployed. People use labels such as “lazy,” “bum,” and other derogatory tags. On the other side of the spectrum, when we hear about an employed man who never misses a day on the job, is the first to volunteer for new projects, and stays late at work, we applaud that person. Even though he might be overworking to the point that it’s hurting his health, he would be esteemed for a strong work ethic. The thought that there could be any purpose in idleness seems completely illogical.
Johnson, however, compares idleness to peace. He takes two sets of entities and says that there is worthy meaning in both sides of each entity. Though war is a wholly separate world from peace, war is used to attain it. Busyness, though it is the farthest thing from idleness, is the needed predecessor to idleness itself. Just as peace is the purpose of war, so idleness is the purpose of busyness.
According to Johnson, work is done simply to complete it so that we can take the time to rest. He does not shun work. He states that it is purposeful. True, it must be done, but rest must follow. It’s common to think, “Why rest for an hour when I could use that time to work and accomplish so much?” To most of us, the purpose of work is not to rest, but to accomplish. We want to achieve, often so we can earn more money and accumulate more possessions. In these efforts, the workload can actually grow. To us, it seems that purpose of work is to do more work.
In doing this, our society denies what it means to be human. A human being requires rest. Because of this denial, our nation is full of cases of stress and anxiety disorders, bodies breaking down under unending workloads, and people who might as well be working themselves to death. We need to accept the fact that humans are mortal, and mortals have limits. Rest is essential.
Of course, there is a time for work, but there is also a time for idleness. Sometimes, we just need to take a break and do nothing. So, put away the papers, the computer, and the cell phone. Lean back in a recliner and maybe drink some tea. Do not let the fact that the world is not going to stop for you to take a break hinder you. Instead, let it comfort you. The world is not going to end if you relax.
