"You have so much potential! When are you going to DO something with it?"
Earlier today, I came across the Dutch term "Niksen" which — as best I understand it — means "to do nothing."
But like many regional terms — much like the word "hygge" from my native Denmark — the translation fails to reflect the deeper meaning of the term.
In the work-obsessed US of A, the idea of regarding doing nothing, with no purpose leaves most people puzzled and even dumbfounded. Even when we allegedly "do nothing" in this country, that nothing is typically filled with schedules, timetables, purpose and meaning.
In Danish we might say "lave ingenting" which translates as doing nothing, and it might suggest that you're just standing there, watching the clouds go by, or looking at butterflies enjoying the flowers, perhaps while having "strøtanker" (another Danish word that might roughly translate as just allowing whatever thoughts come into our head to form and randomly drift through, with no particular purpose).
For those of you who are geographically challenged Danes come from Denmark and speak Danish; the Dutch come from the Netherlands (or Holland) and speak Dutch. The latter not to be confused with Flemish, which is mostly spoken in the northern parts of Belgium.
Upon reflection, I am honestly not sure whether I was bestowed with the moniker "slacker," or whether I willingly adoped it for myself.
Even though I have lived in the USA for more than 40 years, if there is one thing that has always made me stand out from the local crowd, it has been my general avoidance and rejection of the notion that I always need to be busy and doing something.
In fact, much of the time I don't even like doing things, and "being busy" has typically been a condition I have wanted to rid myself of, at the earliest possible convenience.
I love the "activity" of doing nothing. Literally...nothing.
People often mistake "not working" for doing nothing, but piling your bike into your car to drive 10 miles to a park to frenetically ride your bike for an hour is not "doing nothing."
My earliest recollection of doing nothing dates to some point in my childhood where I sould sometimes sit and watch the dustmotes in the air dance around in the sunshine in front of my window, above where the heater vent would blow the hot air into the room.
It was something I could easily occupy myself with, for 10-15 minutes.
I think one of the reasons I enjoyed stamp collecting as a kid was that it was as close to a "publicly sanctioned" way of doing nothing as you could get. Even as a 9-year old, sitting and looking at — and organizing — little pieces of paper was something that could hold my attention for hours.
So why am I beating this particular dead horse, again?
Well, a friend recently had a stress-related heart attack... very likely the result of too many years spent trying to manage a number of "to dos" that would likely keep three people busy.
We're far too preoccupied with always being busy here in the USA, and there's a whole segment of FOMO culture surrounding the idea that we are somehow "missing out on life" if we're not busy doing something during every waking hour.
It's not healthy.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!
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Created at 2025.06.20 23:52 PDT
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