Hello everybody,
An everyday conversation, anywhere in the world:
“So, what did you get up to this weekend?”
“Oh, nothing much, really. I just watched TV mostly.”
“Good for you. Sometimes, that’s just what we need.”
And that’s true. Sometimes, we do all need to decompress and put our feet up for a bit. If you’ve ever truly spent a full day on the sofa — from sickness or sloth — then you’ll notice something odd. There comes a time, usually four or five hours in, when your body starts to crave action. Your legs get restless, your mind starts to wander, and you crave some fresh air. Your soul craves fresh air. We are not meant to be dormant, and we’re often happiest when we’re absolutely, limb-achingly spent. The devil makes work for idle hands, so keep busy. Today, we look at how true this is.
In our Quote of the week, we look at the entirety of human wisdom in two words. In our links, I recommend articles about if Quantum physics proves God and the argument around DINKs. As always, thank you all for your support in my Mini Philosophy project. Honestly, it's you lot who keep it going.
Thank you,
Jonny
You wake up on Sunday morning and roll out of bed. You look out of the window and see that kind of grey, pre-dawn gloom that’s utterly uninviting – not quite frosty, but definitely gloves weather. There’s a lot you need to do. The garage needs cleaning. The leaves need sweeping. The dog needs walking. The upstairs tap needs replacing. The downstairs bathroom needs a new lightbulb. There’s a lot that needs doing. But it’s Sunday, and it’s gloomy, and the sofa is winking at you. You wallow and waste away the day in your pyjamas, leaving your TV only for nature’s twin call of food and relief. A Sunday sofa day.
We’ve all been there. We’ve all had our fair share of duvet days. Today, that’s seen as okay. They’re seen as a legitimate and healthy part of being human – we all need some me time. We need to pause among the busyness.
This is a modern idea. We don’t perhaps appreciate how new the concept of “acceptable laziness” is. In fact, if we go back only a few centuries, we see “sloth” as one of the seven deadly sins. But Sloth for ancient philosophers and the early Christian fathers was not just longing on the sofa all day. It was something more. When we are truly slothful,
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