Ayn Marie Dimaya's Bitter Grace

Somewhere on our blue planet it is 4:01 a.m. Thursday, August 15.

Just 44 minutes ago in that place — to be precise, at 3:17 a.m. — Ayn Marie Dimaya, in her blog Bitter Grace, wrote the following:

Don’t Just Do Something…Sit There!*

Everyone (well, at least my friends and the readers of this blog) knows how useless I’ve been feeling lately because I don’t have a fulltime job and I spend most of my time blogging, or watching TV shows and films, or reading. And I’ve been feeling guilty, because I don’t feel like I’m part of society, the way I should be. After all, it’s been told to us over and over again since childhood that we should study so that we finish school, finish school so that we find work, find work so that we can support ourselves and eventually support our family.

A couple of days ago, while passing time in Fully Booked Gateway, I stumbled across a book-shaped magazine called the idler (Issue 35, “War on Work”). Quite simply, it’s a magazine devoted to changing our perceptions of idling. They argue that the ideal ambition-driven work ethic is killing people and that the capitalist/consumer-driven lifestyle will eventually kill our world. They encourage people to stop overworking and instead embrace a lifestyle that is better for their souls.

The first important step to becoming an idler: stop wanting. As quoted in the article “If they got what you want, then they got you.” So if you’ve stopped wanting what they’ve got, you’re free to life the way you want. You can stop working hard, even quit your job. Find a part time job that will allow you to do the things you like to do–like read, or watch tv and films, or cook, or sleep. And then another important step is to stop feeling guilty that your not working hard because you, in fact, deserve to do nothing.

It reminds me of Sabrina’s father (in the film "Sabrina") who chooses to become a chauffeur so that he’ll have more time to read. Of course, the point of being idle is not to become lazy but to stop being a slave to wage (aka, money-the-root-of-all-evil.) Being idle shouldn’t mean we stop creating.

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Well put.

More about Ms. Dimaya: "This is the personal blog of Ayn Marie Dimaya who is sometimes a film scorer, sometimes a writer, sometimes a student, sometimes a teacher, but most of the time someone who stares at the TV/ceiling/pages of a book in between times of unconsciousness, aka sleep. The contents of this blog vary from: a) rants, b) raves, c) various nonsense like results of tests from blogthings, or d) not-so-nonsense stuff like poems, songs, or film reviews."

Full disclosure: I do not know Ayn Marie Dimaya. I have never met, emailed nor spoken with her. I only learned of her existence via a Technorati link I happened on a few minutes ago.

The fifth of seven links following her above-republished post happens to be to a bookofjoe entry of mine dated July 10, 2005 entitled "In praise of doing nothing," no doubt the beginning of the long and winding road that led me to her site.