OK, maybe it’s just me but why does it seem that the least busy people are never really that busy. I had a conversation with someone and I asked her what her outside interests were. “Oh, I don’t have any. I don’t have time. I’m just way too busy.” 
The inference is that somehow I do-have more time that is. I think somehow she felt that saying she was so-o-o-o- busy meant she was more valuable or something as it was said with an air of superiority. I have the time because I make the time.
As the old saying goes, “If you want something done, ask a busy person.” (Not by the way someone who just says they’re busy with no evidence to support it.) Besides, why is it we all have to be busier than the next person? Why do we tie up our worth with our busyness?
The truth is, society seems to give kudos to those whose lives are frantically busy. Shouldn’t it be that we sympathize with those who are “too busy” rather than elevate them? What’s so praiseworthy anyway?
Why can’t we just be more honest? Why can’t we just say, “No, I’m not all that busy.”
Here’s her life. She doesn’t work outside the home. Gets up very, very late. Doesn’t do yard work. Husband does most of that. Doesn’t cook much from what I can gather. House is small. So she’s too busy doing what?
Contrast that with a young woman I know with two small children (one with special needs), a full-time job, outside interests and from whom I’ve never heard the words, “I’m too busy”. She makes time for other people, takes her special needs child to therapy twice a week and signing class once a week. She’s never sounds stressed. I know she gets very tired but she never complains. She’s too busy living her life and feeling blessed to have what she has.
Within reason, we all have the right to live our lives however we choose. But why does we have to put up a front? Why can’t we just say, “I have no outside interests, nor do I choose to.” I respect that kind of honesty.
Contrast that with someone I asked the same basic question. The answer, “I don’t want to do anything.” OK, then. That person I can respect. I appreciate honesty above most other virtues, but even I succumb sometimes to saying I’m busier than I am just to impress someone. I think my new mantra will be, “I’m as busy as I choose to be.” Because that is the truth.
Most of us have some control over our busyness whether we admit it or not. (I do realize that depending on our stage in life, some have more discretionary time than others.)
(ps You know this is going to end up on a Meltdown Monday, don’t you?)
