Monday, October 12, 2009

from "Not so fast" by Jill Lepore, in the New Yorker 10/12/09:

Efficiency was meant to lead to a shorter workday, but in the final two decades of the 20th century, the average American added 164 hours of work in the course of a year; that is a whole extra month's time, but not, typically, a month's worth of either happiness minutes or civic participation. Eating dinner standing up while nursing a baby, making a phone call to the office, and supervising a third grader's homework is not, I don't think, the hope of democracy."

I would add that the extra month's time spent working is not "paid". It is work fit into the interstices of what is already work, and already busy, and has caused a lot of psychic stress.
When people are looking at America and wondering what is wrong with us, why we are phrenetic and anxious and unhappy, this little fact should be considered.
fond regards to all of you who are trying to "beat the clock" and "make ends meet" and engage in "the pursuit of happiness"!

Wherever you go, there you are. Being happy is not something to pursue, exactly. Remember the old saw about the bluebird landing on your shoulder while you aren't looking. East meets west, as the Buddhists say, "be still. go deeper. Be here now."

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