I have been very busy lately. At least to my standards. Teaching, exams, meetings, application deadlines, babysitting, house guests, giving parties and going to parties, plus the usual taking-care-of-the-family things (cooking, laundry, hoovering, tidying, shopping) - so I've been very tired. And this starts me wondering how all those other people out there (who actually have really busy lives) manage. I read in the papers about people my age (and, yes, even in their THIRTIES) who have wildly successful careers (editors, lawyers, business managers, scientists, doctors) and who probably have 10-hour working days, but still have three or four kids, participate in politics or do voluntary work, coach their kid's football team, go to the gym three times a week, manage the upkeep of both their house, garden and cabin in the mountains, and of course take their kids on bracing all-day hikes in the mountains, with campfires and rappeling down cliffsides every Sunday.
Ok, I realise that they:
1) probably have a cleaner to do their house.
2) don't spend an hour or two in front of the telly in the evenings, watching Fawlty Towers or Spooks on dvd.
3) have developed unique efficiency in everything they do (everything I do has a tendency to fill all the time I have available, no matter if it is one or sixteen things).
4) never feel the need to do nothing at all.
5) are not innately lazy.
But still.
I'm not really busy, but still I have very very few open spaces in my schedule. I would like more time to stand and stare (or, to be perfectly honest, to laze around and do absolutely nothing for a few weeks):
What is this life if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep, or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this, if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
William Henry Davies 1871 - 1940
Wednesday 13 May 2009
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1) Selvsagt har de det!
ReplyDelete2) Man får faktisk gjort veldig mye annet når man ikke har tv - take it from me. Men på den andre siden: Jeg tror det er sunt å vegetere litt foran tv'en!
3) Helt riktig! Man fyller den tiden man har. Derfor irriterer det meg alltid grenseløst at folk som har barn innbiller seg at vi som ikke har det har så innmari god tid. Nei, det har vi ikke, for vi fyller tiden med andre ting og kan ha det akkurat like travelt. Ikke at du sa det, altså - det var bare noe jeg kom på nå.
4) Tror ikke det er så mange som aldri ønsker seg tid til å ikke gjøre noe? Åh, det hadde vært så utrolig deilig med to uker uten noe på plakaten!
5) Ja, her tror jeg det er ganske store individuvælle forskjeller. Noen er mer bedagelig anlagt enn andre.
Hmmm, does this mean that I can justify my innate laziness (let's face it, it's definately there) by saying that I need time to stand and stare? :-) That's good news. Wish I could've told my mother that when I was 14...
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