I'm Taking It Easy
Whenever someone inquires as to what I happen to be doing, I always reply, "I'm taking it easy." That usually serves to satisfy their curiosity. I choose to reply in that manner because saying that I am taking it easy sounds more acceptable than saying, "I'm not doing anything." One must use exceeding caution in electing how to answer that particular sort of question. I have found, more than a few times, and to my considerable dismay, that a careless reply frequently can result in a welter of serious misapprehensions, causing people to get the wrong impression.
Please understand that I am not given to laziness. No, it is more that I honestly prefer to pursue the estimable practice of doing nothing, as a distinct mode of living. Anyone can be active, and nowadays it seems that most people seek to be as feverishly busy as nervous bees, but to truly succeed at doing nothing, constantly and undauntedly, with grace and style and purpose, requires a particular skill. Long ago, when I was starting to make my way in life, I earnestly dedicated myself to learning and perfecting that skill.
I am aware, of course, that some people are inclined to regard my chosen habit of doing nothing as a pronounced defect in my character (many of them have gone out of their way to tell me so, to my face, in what I hold to be unnecessarily harsh terms), but I judge those people to be extremely narrow-minded in their view. Unfortunately, they are unable to discern the pure virtue that can be found in extended periods of determined idleness. Such narrow-mindedness has, I fear, become all too common in our current age of frantic action.
Although taking it easy is sometimes mistaken for mere sloth, it actually constitutes an entirely different kind of experience. When the path of idleness is closely examined, and is properly acknowledged within its rightful context as a worthwhile pattern of human behavior, it can be understood as offering an effective means of apprehending the key to eternal wisdom. Doing nothing, when done correctly, allows one ample opportunity to think, and to draw mature conclusions. (It also allows one ample opportunity to watch a lot of useless stuff on television.)
When the time is right, and I am quite certain that I have achieved as much as I am likely to achieve by doing nothing, I fully intend to rouse myself from the comfort and stability of my idle state. I will then go forth into the world and boldly engage in some (as yet to be determined) form of daring action, if only for an hour. (Or maybe for half an hour, or a quarter of an hour, or at least ten seconds.) In the meantime, however, I will continue to maintain a policy of "all things in due course." I believe that taking it easy is better than overdoing it.
Please understand that I am not given to laziness. No, it is more that I honestly prefer to pursue the estimable practice of doing nothing, as a distinct mode of living. Anyone can be active, and nowadays it seems that most people seek to be as feverishly busy as nervous bees, but to truly succeed at doing nothing, constantly and undauntedly, with grace and style and purpose, requires a particular skill. Long ago, when I was starting to make my way in life, I earnestly dedicated myself to learning and perfecting that skill.
I am aware, of course, that some people are inclined to regard my chosen habit of doing nothing as a pronounced defect in my character (many of them have gone out of their way to tell me so, to my face, in what I hold to be unnecessarily harsh terms), but I judge those people to be extremely narrow-minded in their view. Unfortunately, they are unable to discern the pure virtue that can be found in extended periods of determined idleness. Such narrow-mindedness has, I fear, become all too common in our current age of frantic action.
Although taking it easy is sometimes mistaken for mere sloth, it actually constitutes an entirely different kind of experience. When the path of idleness is closely examined, and is properly acknowledged within its rightful context as a worthwhile pattern of human behavior, it can be understood as offering an effective means of apprehending the key to eternal wisdom. Doing nothing, when done correctly, allows one ample opportunity to think, and to draw mature conclusions. (It also allows one ample opportunity to watch a lot of useless stuff on television.)
When the time is right, and I am quite certain that I have achieved as much as I am likely to achieve by doing nothing, I fully intend to rouse myself from the comfort and stability of my idle state. I will then go forth into the world and boldly engage in some (as yet to be determined) form of daring action, if only for an hour. (Or maybe for half an hour, or a quarter of an hour, or at least ten seconds.) In the meantime, however, I will continue to maintain a policy of "all things in due course." I believe that taking it easy is better than overdoing it.