Reply to Oli's blog 2nd/12/08

Emma Skipp said...
In reply to Olli’s Post

I think Tom Hodgkinson is writing from a very privileged point of view, where he is in fact “able to be idle”.

I’m not sure I agree with his “Snoozing” theory, I personally would actively avoid waking up to thoughts of issues that are imposed upon me daily; my snoozing is purely for snoozing. However I can see his point in theory, the snoozing or contemplatitive time spent waking up is a far more civilised way to enter the day.

In western culture emphasis is continually being put on the importance of “Using out time well” our culture provides us with gadgets and gimmicks which enable us to “save time” thus allowing us to fill it with something else, to use this free time for something productive. We fail to see that being “idle” has its on productiveness. In fact I think as opposed to Hodgkinsons Ideas about waking up slowly it would be far more beneficial to have regular short “Idle rests” throughout the day, giving time to both the body and the mind to recuperate, reflect and relax before continuing with daily obligations, I believe that would make us achieve more and feel happier. Just look at some Eastern cultures, in China and Japan for example, in some factories they start the day with group Tai chi in an effort to give to the workers to enable them to give more to the company.

By nature I think we are probably quite idle, given the choice (to use Hodgkinsons example) most people would stay in bed as opposed to going to work, however I also think part of human nature is its constant want to do more, see more and experience more so we realise in order to do what we want there are things eg working for money we have to do.
He talks about “unnatural and unhealthy rising” this statement I do agree with in parts, for example if we take the winter months in England we see that people do not enjoy getting up in the dark and then coming home in the dark, I think this is unnatural. According to science we must wake up to daylight (and preferably sunlight) to enable our bodies to produce and regulate serotonin, essential for mood stabilising and generally health. Vitamin D is produced from sunlight, and also essential to our general well being so it is no wonder that animals hibernate during this cold and hostile period. I think as humans we could also have our own form of hibernation, that sees people only getting up when its daylight.

However I do agree with your (Olli) sentiment, we must consider what/who allows us to wake up late etc, to understand and (dare I say) even care about our actions in relation to others.

Having not been in Thailand to experience it I realise that the following is just a response to what Olli has written: Perhaps we should consider a “needs must” attitude it is (or is it?) possible that people who live in different socio-economic cultures, different climates etc still have the same sense of idleness as we do?
Our culture dictates an certain attitude that points us down a road of expectations, we must be educated to gain qualification that can provide us with a good income resulting in a “Good life” , perhaps to someone who works the fields, that is relative to our notion of “needs must” working towards our goal. I am by no means comparing our lives to theirs , I couldn’t, but I’m trying to illustrate a point, they understand what they do daily is necessary to the immediate community and then eco structure of the country to a degree, however I’m sure they have time in which to be idle, and because of the difference in culture and environment, they are not as many modern things to distract them, therefore their “Free time” might actually be a lot better than ours, as we are always filling our with something else?

Just a thought. By the way, I really enjoyed my lie in today.
Emma x

02 December 2008 19:44