Busy

This is a guest post from author Elle Garrell Berger. Enjoy!

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I am much too busy.  And I'm not alone.  Today, the traditional greeting "How are you?" prompts an unsettling, new response. 

Gone is the old standby, "Oh, just fine" and the somewhat more honest, "Mmm, things could be better."  Even the grammatically questionable, "Real good," seems to have given way.  Our new answer follows a deep intake of breath, audibly exhaled, and dramatized by a roll of the eyes: "Busy."

I suspect that we respond in this labored way because busy is not what it used to be.  In the old days (days some of us can still recall) busy had a beginning---and an end.  It used to flow---and then ebb.  I remember, for example, the end of the school year, which moved at a frenetic pace.  I had papers to finish, tests to take, and summer plans to settle.  But eventually the term did end.  And I got to wallow in the slower pace of a real summer vacation.

Holiday preparations were different, too.  Mine started with lists: lists of guests, of groceries, of things to do, to buy, to wrap, to cook.  Anticipation mounted as I whirled through my lists at an ever-accelerating speed.  But once the holidays passed, January arrived to replenish my spent energy.  And with it came a winter of excuses to play outdoors or just stay indoors, sort photographs, and read. 

Busy isn't like that any more.  It's a "constant," with almost no downtime.  As soon as we cross something off a list, a new chore or "have-to" clamors to take its place.  We run at full speed as life's "what ifs" continue to multiply.  What if the car won't start?  What if it snows, and I arrive late?  What if one of us catches the flu and has to take time off. . . to rest?

With calendars full year-round, we live in perpetual motion.  Keeping up, but never really catching up.  We manage to meet our daily demands, but seldom do we get to our projects, which we keep putting off, until some magical moment when we intend to be less busy. 

At home, too, life is busy.  Modern appliances, designed to save time, have, instead, raised expectations.  We have cleaner clothing, brighter upholstery, and "power-vacced" carpets.  We also have terribly tired homemakers and the highest per capita rate of energy consumption in the world---which means that we are exhausting the earth's natural resources right along with our own personal energy reserves.

Even away from home, today's blinking, buzzing distractions beckon us to text, talk, and social network.  We reach out, download, and reply, but rarely disconnect to embrace the peace of a "Wi-Fi-less" space.

Eventually, busy can warp one's perspective.  This happened to my friend Mary.  "Do you know," she remarked from her hospital bed shortly after surgery, "for the first time in years, I'm not expected to be anywhere, call anyone, or take care of anything except myself?  How lucky I feel to have found this list-free, unwired bench upon which to rest during my fast-forward journey."

So, if you hear yourself answering "Busy" to the inquiry, "How are you?" you really need to ask, "Until when?"  Because busy is healthful and productive only for a limited time.  It is exhausting as a chronic condition.

How, then, can we recover yesterday's normal, rhythmic, limited type of busy and return to a time when we could sit awhile in someone's kitchen?

Perhaps the answer lies in taking some time to think about backing down a little or giving up a little---which we might be willing to do---if only we weren't so busy.

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Elle Garrell Berger is the author of Stepping Out: A Tenderfoot’s Guide to the Principles, Practices, and Pleasures of Countryside Walking.  Her writing has appeared in numerous publications and has been broadcast on regional public radio stations.