IDLING

OPTIONS

BIG OPTIONS...

It's about choices. And choices are about what's on the table in front of you... and what's within reach on that table but beyond sight... because what's within sight but out of reach - if you can so assess the truth of it - is fairly crucial.... assuming, that is, you take any of it seriously. But if you don't take it seriously you could be landed with a lifetime of abject enslavement.... and being so adaptable, you may not even realise it.

Look at some of the obviously unpleasant jobs people do, yet claim to be contented with. For me, a born idler, this includes most jobs - though certainly not all. This is because I've learned how to enjoy my time (or maybe I never unlearned it for reasons explored in the next paragraph but one). And the more time I have to myself the happier I am. Most people seem to prefer to sell their time - even millionaires. If you're on the breadline this might make sense, but otherwise it could be because you've adapted without realising it. Like Pavlov's dog, you've been programmed, trained, conditioned. You've been 'set-up'. Right from being a little kid in infant school, or maybe even before then, you've been unwittingly manoeuvred into line, into seeing only one OPTION for your future: TO WORK... TO BE A CORPORATE SLAVE, A DOGSBODY!

This isn't how it looks on the surface, of course, otherwise you'd react against it. The scenario is painted in all kinds of colours and shades, adorned with every possible embellishment to present not merely a future that's palatable, but one that's positively attractive, exciting, exhilarating, awesome even....

Some of us, however, catch an early glimpse of what we believe is theTRUTH: some little event or chance perception that exposes a chink in the canvas. At first we wonder: did I see what I thought I saw, or was it a figment? But once alerted, we go prepared... eyes skinned - for a while, at least. Inevitably, now, other chinks appear; they're hard to miss in a world spread with ambiguities, conflicting requirements, competing egos... And soon, some of these flaws will more resemble a gash. At first alarmed, we point these out to people around us, our peers, at least. They're at a total loss. What the hell are we talking about? Their perception, their focus, fails to see anything. It makes no difference how obvious or how large a gash looks to you, most people will be blind to it. It's outside their range of perception, doesn't relate to their experience. As the years pass the gashes widen and increase, so that while your peers regard themselves to be living in a finely decorated, optimally designed and well maintained 'arena', for you it's a squalid, dilapidated labyrinth that survival-wise resembles a jungle.

Favoured circumstances might alert you to an escape route: a talented music-lover, say, who perchance is NOT brushed aside, like so many in the crowd... or one who spontaneously shines in some other approved way. For most of us... where else are the corporate elite to get their factory/office fodder? The crucial issue is, it seems to me: are you aware of this?

Above all - whether or not you can stand back and observe your predicament objectively - you might ask, as an acquaintance of mine recently did : DOES IT MATTER? In other words: if you've adapted well and feel contented, then what's the problem?

This is a profound question. But YES - it does matter, at least it does to me. What other people opt for is their choice - free or not. Is mine free, I wonder? These days maybe, but at one time it wasn't. And even now I'm under certain constraints and subject to propaganda/ conditioning... I know.... but where does one stop? Which doesn't mean we shouldn't, each of us, address the issue for ourselves - and in depth. For after all, it's about your life - agonisingly short that it is - and how you spend it. And what can be more important than that?

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