idle hands

 Idle hands do the devils work. That is an adage I heard from my grandmother. a woman that was always doing something. I wonder if perhaps that isn't the cause of a lot of the troubles we see in the world today. Too many idle hands and overactive minds. I've always enjoyed the physicality of work. That is to say, just the physical activity required to get a job done. Thing is man has always sought an easier way to accomplish a task. We want to do it faster, with less effort, to increase productivity. An increase in productivity is an increase in profit. An increase in profit enables more leisure time. The more leisure time we have, the more our "hands" are idle, the more questionable becomes our behaviors. The pastimes that amuse and entertain us are often destructive as well. Destructive of our moral values for the most part is my thinking.

 Exercise has become a business. Think about that for just a moment.  In our effort to make things easier and faster, we created a need to exercise our bodies. We started suffering from idle hands! So, now we have clubs, with instructors, to teach us how to use our muscles. That wasn't much of a necessity in years past, when living was a bit more physical than it is today. We really didn't think about exercising back then, we thought about working. Man started with a few simple stone tools and a lot of physical effort. Then we started making it easier. Somewhere along the way we have lost our sense of balance. There are just too many idle hands. 

 You know it has been my observation that people tend to do what is necessary. As a general rule I believe people will do what needs to be done regardless of the effort required. In the past that often required much physical activity. That activity was often repetitive, like chopping down a tree with an axe. It really doesn't require a great deal of brain power, although there are skills to be learned, but it kept your hands busy. As a consequence your mind was freed up to think. And that, that is what Grandma was really talking about. What we may call critical thinking these days. If your hands are not involved in doing some constructive task, they will find something to do, something that tends to satisfy your emotional side. That is to say, entertainment. Isn't that what we do when we are not engaged in something of an industrious nature? We find ways to entertain ourselves. Those entertainments aren't always beneficial. A lack of critical thinking occurs. Some people choose to entertain as a means of being industrious. And sometimes those people become the most admired people in society. I see that happening in America today. We are placing entertainment above industry, and suffering as a consequence. Too many idle hands. 

 Today man is concerned more with staying alive, than he is with living. That is evident when we watch those seeking adventure. The adventure of today was just life a hundred years ago. I watch the mountain men and homesteaders on those television shows and that is what I see. Yes, the program is designed to make it appear exciting, bold, dangerous and those folks are struggling to survive. The reality is there are camera crews, para medics, and no one is going hungry. One one show the "homesteader" is harvesting timber to sell, it'll get him through the winter. He's using a 250,000 dollar excavator to accomplish the task. Well, hardly a frontiersman in my opinion. But it is entertaining to watch anyway. I suppose you still get that feeling of accomplishment that comes with that sort of life. I'm thinking you have to have a pretty good income to do that however. Banks don't lend money without some form of security. And that is the modern world. Yes, I know homesteading is still a possibility, but you can't start that with an ax and a dream anymore. 

 I don't know I was just thinking that perhaps if we all had to work a little harder, had a little less free time, and kept ourselves busy things would be better. Man has always sought the easier path, human nature I guess. Is that the premise behind the Amish and Mennonites faith? They certainly keep their hands busy. It is fascinating to me that the children almost always choose to remain in their communities. I have read where, at a certain age, they are allowed to go into the world and give it a whirl. They almost always return. Is it simply the attraction of home and the familiar? I can see that. Perhaps life outside that world is just an entertainment overload for them. Moral and ethical values? Or just a simple sense of community. Maybe that is it. When we had to work together, as a labor force, communities were bonded together a little closer is my thinking. Now tucked away in our offices and cubicles that is being lost. Idle hands.