How doing nothing might actually save the world
Get ready to be shocked with a fact about me that quite often makes people malfunction. When I was a kid, I didn’t play with toys. I had no interest in playing pretend, jamming action figures together, or developing a multigenerational drama between Barbies. Instead, I spent hours sitting and staring. My favorite activity was looking out a window or sitting in the grass…thinking.
I grew up spending my time between Kansas City, Missouri and Fort Worth, Texas which meant a lot of road trips back and forth. For the 8+ hour drive, my sister always brought loads to do: activity books, My Little Ponies, games, music. But I didn’t need anything but my mind. Today we would call it raw dogging a roadtrip, but back then it only confused my mom. From the passenger seat, she would turn around and keep an eye on me, looking puzzled as I spent the entire drive gazing out the window. “Magee…” (as she would sometimes call me) “…what are you thinking about?”. My reply was always the same and it was honest. “I’m thinking about everything!”. There was so much to think!! Why are women not allowed to show their nipples but men are? Why do we put fences around animals and claim them as our own? How did we decide when one town ends and another begins?
It felt like there were unlimited questions to be asked and I would spend hours trying to find an answer to them all. But! I learned quickly to never ask these questions to the adults. They could almost never answer me confidently and when they tried it would get blurted out as “I don’t know, that’s just how the world works!”.
I found the most interesting questions were about man-made constructs because they made the least sense. Why is it wrong to fart in public? Why do we allow bugs outside but kill them if they come inside? Why do we not kiss our friends?
The adults couldn’t answer my questions sufficiently and it almost seemed like they’d never taken the time to question it themselves. It was as if they would encounter a question and immediately brush it off saying “I don’t know, that’s just how the world works!” and move on to whatever else they were doing. So, naturally, the adults themselves became my favorite thing to think about, to study. And, ha! What a can of worms it was! Here’s a bit of what I found.
Little Meg’s findings
Adults’ daily lives are consumed with man-made constructs that don’t make any sense and they don’t seem to care! They are perfectly fine accepting things as normal all day every day. They’re totally uncomfortable asking questions and they do everything to avoid being alone with their own thoughts. They seem to find it so odd that I love doing nothing because they spend every second avoiding doing nothing.
And they’re always doing something. They love to do something! Strangely, they fantasize about doing nothing, but only hypothetically. Society makes them feel like doing nothing is gluttonous and doesn’t help them get anywhere.
And because it’s not comfortable to be alone with their own thoughts, they can’t do “nothing” for too long because it’s far too scary. Because they are not friends with their own minds, they replace their inner monologue with constant input from literally everywhere else.
I was so frustrated because if they would only let themselves think deeply, they would start to realize that it’s actually quite enjoyable to do nothing. Because there is so much to think about!
An alternative to rotting
I’m an adult now (eww) and my favorite thing to do, still, is nothing. Anyone remember my podcast in 2020?! My favorite activity is looking out a window or sitting in the grass…thinking. And because my mind is a safe place of curiosity, it is a beautiful place to be. I’m always so delighted when I get a moment to do nothing. Most adults think of this as a time they’ll pull out their phones to distract themselves from their own mind. But for me, it’s a time to think, study, question, and be curious.
Here are some of my favorite opportunities to do nothing:
On the toilet!
In an elevator!
In the chair at the hair salon!
Any waiting room!
Long queues!
Train and bus rides!
Getting my nails done!
Sitting at a bar or coffee shop!
Okay but! Society sometimes confuses my doing nothing as an opportunity to socialize, which I am open to (but not always). Sometimes if I’m sitting in a social space practicing nothing, it gets confused for something else. Imagine me sitting at a bar with my eyes wandering around as I’m thinking about how each inch of short/pant length instantly means something different. I’ll be deep in thought about bermuda vs. capri not realizing I’m staring at a man who eventually sends a drink my way. To avoid this, I’ll bring a book as my cover. I’ll put a book in front of my face, but I’m never actually reading (because that would be doing something).
How doing nothing will save the world
If enough adults do nothing, we could change the world. It’s a silly sentence, but if you get comfortable enough to let your brain think about it, it makes sense. Being alone with our own thoughts and forming a practice of independent thinking is what helps us realize that almost everything man-made doesn’t actually make any sense. “That’s just how the world works!” isn’t acceptable because “normal” is a construct designed to keep us in line.
The next time your instinct is to pick up your phone to pass some time, try doing nothing instead! Study the environment (and the adults) around you and start being curious. Things will stop making sense and that is scary, but you can think your way to a better future for yourself and for us all.
And there is so much to think about!
Written from: Siop Shop, Northern Quarter, Manchester. On this day it was raining as I sat in the window gazing up at people scurrying in their rain jackets. A greyhound with a raincoat walked in and the room turned and gasped at its majesty! What a sight.