Laziness

I think that I am a supremely lazy person. All things being equal, given the choice between doing something and doing nothing, I tend to choose nothing. Of course, that is an overstatement; I don't really know how to state the reality that I feel - everything I say here must be an approximation. The fact that I am writing this at all belies what I am saying. Blogging is not laziness.

Whenever I expound on my lazy nature, my friends always tell me I'm wrong. They point to my accomplishments in my professional career, they note the things I have created in my life, and the effort I put into friendships themselves. But I can't help feeling lazy and truly enjoying that laziness. I love the feel of sun and breeze on my skin. I want to sit in the sun and let the moments go by, watching thoughts float through my head on their way from somewhere to somewhere else. I inculcate serenity.

As for my professional accomplishments, I like to recite a quote that I have always attributed to Ben Franklin (of course, searching online now I cant find it): "If you want to find a really efficient way to do something, ask a lazy man how he would do it." I believe that my whole career boiled down to being super efficient in the way I did things, and that I was able to be super-efficient because I was supremely lazy.

I have all kinds of behaviors that compensate for my laziness. I make lists. I tackle projects so I don't have to think about them. I organize and arrange things for easy access. From the outside this undoubtedly looks like active efficiency and accomplishment. From the inside it feels like expediency driven by laziness.

I think its time for my mid-morning nap.