It happens this way …
Ain’t that a kick in the head!
As a child growing up in New Jersey in the ’40s and ’50s, the biggest sin I committed was laziness. It was a mortal sin, of course, earned by not completing chores on schedule, wanting to sleep in on a Sunday morning after babysitting until 3 a.m., or failing to get straight A’s in school.
With that message embedded in my psyche, it’s taken decades not to feel guilty when my partner is doing to any household task – from vacuuming to loading laundry – while I’m reading or working on the computer. I’ve had to consciously hold myself in my chair against the temptation to jump up and help. Now I assure myself it’s okay not to participate in her fine work and simply tell her how much I appreciate her.
Science is confirming I’ve spent much of my life shortening it by all that jumping up. A recent article in Phys.Org reports:
A new large-data study of fossil and extant bivalves and gastropods in the Atlantic Ocean suggests laziness might be a fruitful strategy for survival of individuals, species and even communities of species.
This study focuses metabolic rates. The higher the rate, the more negative the impact on longevity; the lower, the opposite occurs. Admittedly, this study focuses on those darling sea-dwelling bivalves and gastrospodes and not on land-loving vertebrates. But I’d like to think that guilt-free slowing down in retirement is actually adding years to my life. I’d really like to think that. Blessed are the sluggish who feel the fullness of their interior — as well as their exterior – lives.
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