No Action

” In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing , the next best thing is the wrong thing and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” Theodore Roosevelt

I do not agree with Teddy.

Many of us react like Teddy in difficult moments and we cry Bully ! and send our Great White Fleet of aggression and manic energy in a rage for results. Often, nothing is the exact right thing to do. Often the wish for a pause of some duration prior to activity tempers our rage and gives us perspective. The manic push for results can lead us to great results (think Moon Landing and war winning ) but more often our addiction to activity destroys rather than enhances our lives.

It could be that this bottom-line thinking is uniquely American…as was Teddy himself. We are the land of quarterly reports, dividend checks, sports records and celebrity and it shows. We regularly do things in haste and we often do things we don’t understand even as we do them. No time is given to speculation about consequences or effects on others. The check must be cut by today at noon.

To end the suffering that our taste for fevered action causes, we might do well to count to ten …or ten thousand. When we don’t engage with every available input, we seem happier, centered and at peace. That is the right thing to do.

Yet, our culture makes this relaxed, gentle and specific form of engagement virtually impossible. We must enter society armed with “informed opinions” the latest fashion, the expensive education and no room for inaction. Social media increases the range and the velocity of our unconsidered thoughts and dinner must be on the table by six.

Wait.

Stop.

Think.

The amazing writer Samuel Beckett was once asked what he did for amusement. No doubt, the questioner expected some Spartan hyper action was afoot. Beckett replied, ” I like to sit in a comfortable chair, fart and read Dante. ” I get that.

Our culture’s increased interest in mindfulness and meditation seems a cry to be left alone… a plea for the time we need to be human. Our greatest successes going forward may be based on what we have the courage to NOT DO.

Got to go now , I forgot where I left my copy of The Inferno.