“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone” – Blaise Pascal.
If there is one thing that I really discovered about myself in the last 6 months, particularly in the last few weeks, is that the above famous words from a historical figure do not quite apply to me. Having lived alone in Singapore for almost five year, I knew I am not a person who always want to be out and about.
But… the few months have brought about monumental discoveries.
“To sit quietly in a room” – this is probably a metaphor. Translating into today’s words, I would think it probably equates to not doing a lot, or not doing anything at all, or to a certain extent, just self-entertained.
Are we able to do this for an extensive period of time?
I discovered that I could. As I reflect on this, I realised that it could possibly be because I have always done this from a very young age. For instance, I don’t think I have a proper toy until I was in my early teens. As such, I believe I have mastered the art of entertaining myself, or just sit quietly at one spot and just let time passes.
It is probably an escape when I was very young, from everything that is happening around me. Perhaps that was a good thing, as that didn’t allow bad influence affect me when I was young.
I sound pretty weird now, but I do believe not doing anything or just doing the exact same thing over and over again in these days and age is truly a disappearing art.
3 comments:
I've retired some 13 years now - time flies even when one is not doing much of anything. I got used to it eventually - that is why I am coping pretty well with the COVID-19 lockdown, not pulling my hair out! But then again, I'm old - you're much too young to just sit and watch the days go passing by, you reckon?
looking forward to read your next post.
Hi zewt! Just remembered I still have an active blog which is no longer active and wondered how things been in the last decade for you. Glad your recent post is not from too long ago!
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