Dulce Far Niente…In Italian it means “the sweetness of doing nothing” or as I like to think about it “the simple pleasure of doing nothing”.
I write this as I’m setting at my health spa…Starbucks. Hey! It the perfect health spa for me. Yeah, the membership price is a little steep ($4.00 for a cup of joe) but, I enjoy the quality of coffee and the overall atmosphere creates an experience the I’ve come to expect no matter where in the country I end up. It’s one less thing to think about. Which leaves more time to think about the other things bouncing around in my head. And it’s busy in there.
Now there are many metaphors in and for life, and Starbucks is a doosie. I submit, for your consideration, a few observations. Sitting with an unobstructed view of the restaurant, or “cafe”, one can simply observe people looking to scoring their next fix of Sudomo, Ethiopian or Guatemalan. People are standing in line, fueling off their last fix looking to “get well” again for a few more hours before they start tweak’n with uncontrollable ticks and whistles that might be mistaken for turrets. With feet tapping and the rapid eye movement of a narcoleptic who just fell into a bad nightmare, time it seems, for these individuals, is moving at a snails pace. After all, they’ve been here the amount of time it took to get from the car to the counter and they are wondering where the hell is the NASCAR coffee pit crew with their drink. As soon as they have obtained their choice of hyper caffeinated, high quality, black liquid, they are off faster than a prom dress after the dance.
All this beg the question. Do any of these people ever really slow down and enjoy doing nothing? Can they? I have a feeling that if they ever found themselves in this situation, that their head would implode from the perceived vacuum due to the lack of activity in their skull. After all, we have all been programed that their is not enough time in the day to get everything done. No time to make dinner or spend time with the family. We’ve been told by every means possible, by every advertisement on multiple fronts that this is the case. If you do take a single minute for yourself, your being selfish, wasteful and dare I say…lazy. Gasp!
Look, turn off the cell phone and go for a walk in the park. Leave all the electronics home and take the family out to dinner. My personal favorite. Go to a wine bar, try some different wines and leisurely enjoy some appetizers. Have a friend join you. Take some time to “do nothing” and those around you will notice a difference.
Images taken in Saratoga Springs, NY.
Gear use to capture this image:
Fujifilm X-Pro 1
Fujinon XF 35mm F1.4 R
Sony 32GB SD Card
Wasabi Power Battery for Fujifilm
