Idleness so called, which does not consist in doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not recognised in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling class, has as good a right to state its position as industry itself.
– An Apology for Idlers, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Useless Tree By Zhuang Zhou
A carpenter named Shin passes by a large oak tree. The tree is humungous and towers above hilltops. Its large branches can be made into boats and shelter about a thousand oxen. Paying no heed to this grand inhabitant, the carpenter walks along the path. His apprentice notes this and asks Shin why he hasn’t considered chopping the tree for timber. Shin responds to the tyro by saying that the tree is “useless” and its timber is “worthless.” Hence, it has reached its “ripe old age.” The two stroll to their homes.
After returning home, the tree appears in the master carpenter’s dreams, questioning its ‘uselessness.’ It compares itself with other useful fruit-bearing trees such as apple, pomelo, and orange, asserting proudly that these useful trees attract the attention of the everyday world. Therefore, they are stripped of their life in their prime after yielding their fruits. The Oak tree, however, has been trying to remain useless for a long time, which is precisely why it stands enormous.
The Old Survivor is a majestic coastal redwood tree located in Oakland Hills, East Bay, California. It is more than 500 years old. Once redwoods had dominated the Oakland Hills area, it is the last of the old-growth redwood. The widespread logging operations could not shake off the Old Survivor because it is anchored on a steep and rocky hillside, inaccessible to colonialists in the 19th century. It now stands as the symbol of the resilience of nature.
Some Context For Idle-ness
Coming from a quite happening metropolitan city of India, Bengaluru, where life has halted during ‘peak hours’ due to traffic. The traffic is so troublesome that the natives and migrants take pride in saying that the city is a true test and the best teacher of ‘patience.’ For a long time, thriving and pluming in this statement, I can’t entirely agree with it completely now. Although people are stuck in traffic for hours daily, they are occupied. From going through unread emails, catching up on current affairs, scrolling on social media, and catching up with kith and kin who live far away, everyone is capitalizing on the time lost (hours, in fact) in commutation.
However, I had grown tired of my nest (the city) and wanted to venture. Hence, I decided to pursue my master’s degree in a comparatively ‘more active’ space (as Bengaluru lacked the zeal I wanted), Mumbai, the City of Dreams. It is yet another metropolitan city where people constantly rush through as they have no time. While the nature of commute in both the cities is very different, the former where things are stagnant and the latter where one is always on the go. Nonetheless, the time lost in commuting is huge, and its residents have managed to capitalize on this.
Coming To The Point
During my time in Mumbai, I realized none of these places offered what I lacked most—patience, or rather, the ability to stay calm and wait. Coming from where I am, making peace by doing nothing felt almost impossible. The spaces I grew up in rewarded idleness only after a great deal of tasks were done. I was surrounded by everyone who was not comfortable doing nothing. It was, in fact, looked down upon.
From my retired parents, who can’t still process the fact that they have done enough, and my 84-year-old grandmother, who huddles all around our house to get chores done, to my 16-year-old neighbour who has the next 20 years of their life planned, no one seems to comfortable in the silence around and within.
Frustrated and confused with everything happening around and within me, I decided to do a fellowship that would equip me with the knowledge of the development sector. As part of the fellowship, I am expected to work with a non profit on their ongoing project for the next one and a half years. Hence, I am in Dayapar, a village in the Lakhpat taluk of Kutch, Gujarat, the westernmost district of India.
My role here is to sit with the people I work with, to get comfortable and vulnerable with them, and to provide them the same space in return. It’s a life, quite literally, in its essence. Yet, I’m finding this incredibly challenging. People tell me I’m on a paid vacation with a list of tasks to check off here and there. This process is meant to be wholesome, perhaps even life-changing. While I hold hope in it, there are moments when I question everything. Despite what people say, Bengaluru doesn’t teach patience—it only teaches you to capitalize on time lost to rapid urbanization and the lifestyle it brings.
Trusting The Process
So, what if the grand old tree did not provide timber or fruits? Its service, rather presence, is essential. Shin, the carpenter, miserably failed to see what the tree had to offer. It provided shade to the exhausted and could easily accommodate 1000 oxen under its canopy. In addition, the oak tree stands as a testimony of legacy. It stood the test of time, witnessing several events generation after generation. Each of its gnarled branches has a story to tell. A story, sacred and significant to the land, it was anchored.
Just as practices like logging and large-scale farming decimate the land, an overemphasis on performance turns what was once a dense and thriving landscape of individual and communal thought into a Monsanto farm whose “production” slowly destroys the soil until nothing more can grow. As it extinguishes one species of thought after another, it hastens the erosion of attention.
– How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell
When the attention economy treats human attention as a finite, valuable resource, remaining idle is crucial for countering overstimulation, stress, anxiety, and burnout. Being idle gives the brain space to rest, process information, and foster creativity. It helps us to wander and go wild, avoiding monopolisation of our focus. This is by further enabling us to reconnect with our intrinsic selves rather than being guided by external influences.
Staying idle – well, in my case, it is staying calm and resisting the urge to ask questions. Often these questions are just to break the silence (that I am not used to). Instead, I am expected to let mutual intuition guide the conversation. This helps build a better bond and get to the core of understanding the community.
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