They do not preach that their God will rouse them a
little before the nuts work loose.
They do not teach that His Pity allows them to drop
their job when they dam'-well choose.
As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark
and the desert they stand,
Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren's
day may be long in the land. Rudyard Kipling
This is an excerpt from Kipling's poem Sons of Martha. It normally reflects my personal philosophy of life. If something important needs done, then doing it is usually the best response, while sitting around staring at your navel means some other poor soul will need to actively pull your sorry self out of whatever hot water your inaction got you into.
But this morning I had my "son of Martha" mentality challenged by an unusual source. Normally credited to the white rabbit of Alice in Wonderland, the stupefying line, "don't just do something, stand there!" has been challenging me since I heard it quoted this morning on NPR.
I'm feeling a sense of white rabbit syndrome coming on.... "Late! Late!" Time and Task orientated solutions espoused by Mr. Rabbit and myself may not be the best response to some of the things that are in my life's inbox. But perhaps his confounding and confusing drivel of standing still is the most productive thing I can do to produce the desired outcomes for the issues at hand.....
Used by everyone who ever wanted to suggest that inaction can be as productive as action and that sometimes it is the only solution to vexing problems, it is also utterly frustrating advice for someone when they have several things in life that need done yesterday that normally should be solved by simply doing something about them, but seem to defy active solutions.
So I've decided that in response to NPR's subliminal messaging; Lewis' White Rabbit's "no steps to success" model of life management, and my own confounding inner voices I'm taking a whole day to practice inactivity.
I'll let you know how it went....
feel free to tell me what you thin of this weird experiment....
