Saturday, June 02, 2018

Time to rest

Over at Real Clear Science Gottschalk recaps some of his book about the acceleration of life and how it is harming us. He notes that "many spiritual and philosophical systems Buddhism, for example, suggest that detaching from daily concerns and spending time in simple reflection and contemplation are essential." This shows a curious allergy to Judaism and Christianity, which are explicit about a day of rest. I suppose the exotic, being more distant, is less demanding if it turns out to be true.

"Acceleration" is a bit more generic than the usual "over-work," since it includes also the unproductive time spent "keeping up with things" on the net. "Keeping up" isn't anywhere near leisure--we treat it as urgent and therefore stressful, but by and large there's little we have do about the things we "keep up" with, and there's nothing we can show for the time we spent--it trends "dissatisfying."

I just spent an hour. I started out researching pressure air hose fittings (my hose broke), but when I was done I didn't stay done...

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