Rejuvenation
How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then to rest afterward.
-Spanish Proverb
The mark of a successful man is one that has spent an entire day on the bank of a river without feeling guilty about it.
-Unknown
Rest when you’re weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work.
-Ralph Marston
Ahem…excuse me…may I have your attention please! Please…excuse me - QUIET! Thank you. Would those of you in the audience who either work for a living or who are attending school with the goal of eventually finding a job please raise your hand?
Very good - almost half of the auditorium, I see, and I assume that most of you who didn’t respond are retired - am I correct? Good. Now, may I see by a show of hands how many of you feel stressed out or exhausted?
Oh, goodness…um, perhaps it would be easier if I asked how many of you do not feel this way. May I see your hands? Anyone? Anyone at all?
Well then, you see - I’ve already made my point, namely that we need to find a way to escape from the straitjacket of stress and worry that we unwittingly don each morning. Consider that image for a moment, if you will - all of us walking around with our arms tied to our sides, looking like extras from a cheap horror film. This is what stress does to us. It is no wonder, therefore, that we sleep poorly and shovel enough fat and sugar into us to drop a band of gorillas, not to mention a pandemonium of parrots, the poor little darlings!
It’s not just enough, you see, that we get our eight hours a night, exercise regularly and pledge to eschew all the goodies for sale at fast food places, or packaged within plastic bags, or just now being wheeled on a cart to your table by a smiling waiter. We need to find time in each and every day to do absolutely nothing - to boycott the turning of the earth, remove our prisoner’s jumpsuit and dive into the clear rejuvenating waters of freedom from thinking. For some of you this may mean getting out of doors, which is a good way to watch clouds and sunsets I am told. For others it may be doing a puzzle, or reading a book, or perhaps just resting in front of the fireplace on a chilly night and watching the flames perform belly dances in front of your weary eyes.
I’m sure some of you feel guilty when you’re not doing anything constructive like watching television, or maybe you have succumbed to the mass hypnosis offered by modern communication technology and find yourself constantly cell-phone-chatting-texting-e-mailing-My-Spacing your friends like a battlefield commander anxiously trying to stay in touch with his fighting units. This is no way to keep wits sharp and vision keen. You must designate a period of time every day, whether it be for half an hour or three hours, where no one can reach you and you are free to read the epigrams of Marcus Aurelius, or listen to cardinals high up in the trees whistling to each other, or daydream about your greatest achievement, or simply stare at your navel if you so desire. Think of this time as a little reward for putting in a hard day’s work, or surviving a full day in the classroom. If you should ever find yourself wavering - considering a trip to the mall, or fingering the remote control like a pre-embargo Cuban cigar, or revising your Nobel Prize acceptance speech, just remember this jingle I shall now recite, and thank me when the inky night envelopes you while nodding off under the sweet scent of viburnum.
Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice -
Just one or two hours a day should suffice.
Slip away from the world and sit on your bum,
Let your voice and your cell phone both become mum.
Pamper your mind with whatever you please,
Let stress drift away with the evening breeze.
Soon all of your worries will come to a halt,
But if all else fails, sip a nice single malt.
