Lazy
I was almost too lazy to write this post. So lazy, in fact, that I considered outsourcing it to my husband, who is always the first to call me out on my laziness.
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| Paris, c. 1966 |
I was lazy from the start. In Paris with my parents when I was about five years old, I was exhausted from walking, so I ducked under a sidewalk café table and refused to move another inch.
Today, I gravitate toward the couch, put off making dinner, and leave most household chores to my dear, industrious husband, Joe.
I have been called “lazy” so often by Joe that when I told him I was considering writing about it, he was ready with examples of my indolence and lethargy. He was all in favor of my outing myself as lazy.
I am in good company. Winston Churchill was famously lazy, often working from bed. Leonardo da Vinci took over 25 years to complete some projects. Homer Simpson and The Dude from The Big Lebowski are well-known fictional examples. Tom Sawyer bamboozled other boys into painting Aunt Sally’s fence.
Bill Gates is often quoted as saying he prefers to assign a difficult job to a lazy person because they will find an easy way to do it.
At my laziest, I have asked Joe to come from the other room to hand me my glasses, which were on the table beside me. This was a page right out of my mother’s book. She once called me upstairs from the basement over the phone to do the same thing. I come by my laziness honestly.
Before you judge me, let me offer this defense of laziness. If I prefer inaction to housework or a siesta on the couch to walking the dogs, it is because I have an active interior life and am busy plotting things in my head. The area where I am not the least bit lazy is planning. I am a planner, and I love to map out travel plans and dinner arrangements.
So if I’d rather hibernate than hustle and seem more sedentary than striving, at least know I am aware of my ways and unlikely to change any time soon. That would take too much effort.
I have been called “lazy” so often by Joe that when I told him I was considering writing about it, he was ready with examples of my indolence and lethargy. He was all in favor of my outing myself as lazy.
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| Tom Sawyer tricks a friend |
Bill Gates is often quoted as saying he prefers to assign a difficult job to a lazy person because they will find an easy way to do it.
At my laziest, I have asked Joe to come from the other room to hand me my glasses, which were on the table beside me. This was a page right out of my mother’s book. She once called me upstairs from the basement over the phone to do the same thing. I come by my laziness honestly.
Before you judge me, let me offer this defense of laziness. If I prefer inaction to housework or a siesta on the couch to walking the dogs, it is because I have an active interior life and am busy plotting things in my head. The area where I am not the least bit lazy is planning. I am a planner, and I love to map out travel plans and dinner arrangements.
So if I’d rather hibernate than hustle and seem more sedentary than striving, at least know I am aware of my ways and unlikely to change any time soon. That would take too much effort.
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I like the distinction between physical and intellectual laziness. You are certainly not the latter.
ReplyDeleteThe Picture of You in Paris in 1966 is absolutely Awesome. That is soooooo funny sitting under the table ! ! !
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sara you are not lazy intellectual. Sandy
ReplyDelete