On doing nothing
(Reblog) THE IDLER: How to do nothing Words by Nikaela Marie Peters Photograph by Maja Norrman for Kinfolk As people get older, they realize that time is more valuable than money. And finding more time to do absolutely nothing is perhaps exactly what we all need. It’s the stuff of gods and infants—the birthplace of great works of art, philosophy and science. The habit of doing nothing at all is super-important to our individual and cultural well-being, yet it seems to be dying in our digitized age. Far from laziness, proper idleness is the soul’s home base. Before we plan or love or decide or act or storytell, we are idle. Before we learn, we watch. Before we do, we dream. Before we play, we imagine. The idle mind is awake but unconstrained, free to slip untethered from idea to idea or meander from potential theory to potential truth. Thomas Aquinas argued that “it is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation.” I...