Busy Busy Bees

The other day I was having a tough time being motivated to work. I was being crazy productive, but wasn't really feeling too excited about anything I was doing. I just had ZERO energy! So I went off campus for lunch to my new favorite lunch spot, Chick Fil-A. I like it because there are some actually healthy options there that I can have, plus their fruit cup is unrivaled in all the land. No nasty melon, no slimy bananas. Just deliciously fresh fruit - grapes, apples, strawberries, and mandarin orange slices. YUM! After I got my food I decided to stick around for awhile, and it was a such a beautiful day that I ate outside (surprisingly I was the only one who was out there most of the time. I guess people like air conditioning more than sunlight. Crazy).

Usually when I go somewhere to eat alone, I bring something to do - a book to read, my laptop, or my cell phone. But I didn't have any of that stuff with me. Actually, my cell phone was probably in my purse nearby, but I didn't want to look at it. I just sat and watched all the people coming in and out of the restaurant. Apparently, the Midwest City Chick Fil A is the most successful Chick Fil A in all of Oklahoma. I'd believe it - that place was packed! Just so we're clear, I didn't just stare at people as they walked by me. Even I know that's creepy. But I did make notice of those who came in and those who left. I like people watching, and it gives me a good escape from my own reality.

The crazy thing was how many people gave me slightly odd looks as I sat there eating my chargrilled chicken sandwich and fruit cup. It took me a while to figure out what was so different about me, and then it hit me: The majority of the people who came into the restaurant walked quickly, were talking on their phones, and then left as soon as they had gotten their food. They probably ate it in the car on their way back to work or the next errand they had to run. And here I was, savoring every bite of each piece of strawberry in my fruit cup. It probably took me longer to eat the apple chunks at the bottom of my cup than it took most of those people to eat their entire meal. So why was I getting odd looks? I think that they were scared by my inactivity.

Why does inactivity scare us? I guess back in the day, inactivity meant death - if you sat still for too long, a sabertooth tiger could eat you. Or if a person lay still for too long, that was probably a good sign they weren't ever going to move again. Activity definitely has its place - it keeps us healthy, awake and alive. But shouldn't there be a place for inactivity other than the 4 or 5 hours of sleep we force into our schedule every day?

In high school and college, there was always a sort of bragging game that would go on - someone would come in one day really tired, and when someone else would ask them why they were tired, they'd explain that they didn't get to bed until 2:00 that morning, then they had to wake up for school at 7. This statement was kind of like throwing out a challenge. The little brains of all the kids around would start calculating when they went to bed and when they got up to see if they had gotten less sleep than that person. If they did, they would chime in with their own sad sleep story. "I know what you mean, man, I was up studying until 4:00 this morning for that Chemistry final and then had to be up by 6 to work out and get to class on time!" And this game would be played for a few more rounds until someone would claim an all-nighter (or two back-to-back all-nighters) and thus win the game.

For awhile I played this game - and won it a lot - until I realized that the underlying spirit behind the game wasn't one of comiseration but of bravado. It was all about bragging, because for some reason we decided that whoever got the least amount of sleep must be the most important in some way. Once I figured that out, I thought that the game was a sign of immaturity and surely when I got out of the scholastic realm the game would end.

Then I graduated and got a job and realized that it never ends. It just develops. The "I only slept for 2 hours" game is no longer impressive. Plenty of people have since realized the importance of sleep and bragging about not sleeping seems to be more like bragging about cutting off your big toe - why would you? Plus, moms of newborns and pregnant women can always win that game. Not fair. But the bravado has now developed into something more sophisticated. Now we brag about how busy we are. Oh, I can't possibly make that meeting, I've got four meetings back-to-back Friday afternoon, and after those four I have to write up summaries of each meeting, fax them across the globe, pick up a sheet cake at the baker's before they close at 5:30, buy a gift, wrap it, shower and change and make it to a six-year old's birthday party by 6:45. Then I have to help facilitate the Pin the Tail on the Donkey game, help clean up, get my kids who have just now eaten enough sugar to put them into a dibetic coma back home and to bed, and then finish up the rest of the work I didn't do because I was in the four meetings so that I can crash in bed around midnight and be up by 6 the next morning to get into the office and submit my proposals to my boss by 8.

But what are we really saying? Did they really need to know all of that about my schedule or could a simple, "No, I'm sorry, I'm too busy Friday," have done the trick? Why do we feel the need to unload our overpacked schedules on people? Because activity has come to mean importance. And the more active (or busy) you are, the more important you are. So when I tell you how busy I am, I'm really saying, "I'm sorry, I can't make that meeting, because I'm more important than you." Don't you feel a sense of satisfaction when you can list off everything you have to do in a day and the person you're talking to stares at you in awe like, "How in the world can you do all of that? You must have superpowers!" I know I do.

So why are people afraid of inactivity? Because it acts against the cultural idea that busy means important. Did I feel less important than the busy people rushing in and out of the restaurant the other day? To be honest, I did a little. It's against my nature to sit still and enjoy sunshine and puppies between the hours of 9am and 5pm. But I'll bet you that my lunch break was much more beneficial to me than those people's breaks were to them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we should all be inactive. And I'm not saying that if you are a busy person you're prideful. It's a necessary thing in this culture to be busy. It helps you to survive. But every once in awhile, when I find myself getting wrapped up in how busy I am, I find it helpful to do something to force me to be un-busy, like sitting outside and listening to the birds. Or people watching. Or just listening for the sweet, still voice of God in the midst of the insanity of my everyday life.