Vago

WARNING: THIS GETS PREACHY.  

So, I had an interesting conversation with a friend a few days ago in Peru.  I just like saying that.  A few days ago, in Peru, I was talking to this friend... Anyway, Marion accused me of being lazy.  And, of course, I am.  So she's spot on.  But it got me thinking about this term that we use, and the ways in which we use it.  

Dictionary.com defines lazy as "adverse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion."  Don't you love the word "disinclined," by the way?  But back to lazy.  Marion was accusing me of being lazy because I don't want to get a job.  I would prefer to not have a job.  Which isn't really true, though.  I would love to have someone pay me - it's really just that I don't want to do things outside of what I want to do to make that money.  And so, really, I just don't want to do things that I don't want to do.  When Marion met me, I was actually doing a lot!  I was traveling throughout South America.  In the days we spent together I went for several swims, I played a lot of ping pong, I got up one morning at 6:30 to catch some early waves and have a two session day, I ate ceviche for breakfast and bought fruits I'd never had to make juice, I had new and unique conversations with perfect strangers about laziness.  And yet I was being accused of being lazy because I don't have a job!  

And I've noticed this everywhere, really.  If you're not doing something you don't want to do - you're lazy!  How backwards are we?  Instead of aspiring to do only what we want to do, and commending those that have reached that stage for whatever reason, we use a derogatory term to refer to those that get to do what they want to do, and we compliment those that neglect themselves in order to make money or keep their status quo.  

So, as I sit here in beautiful Costa Rica, jobless, eating some canned pork and beans for breakfast, thinking about going for a late morning surf session after I make some travel arrangements to fly back to my home state to see the most wonderful people in the world (not you Neil), I have decided to change our use of the word lazy.  From now on, anyone who is disinclined to follow what they really want to do because they are too afraid of getting outside of their comfortable little work-sleep box I will call lazy.  And for those of you that are out there, doing the things that they have always wanted to do, taking opportunities and truly seizing the day, I will commend you.  Stop reading other people's blogs, following news stories about other people, or facebook stalking an ex-boyfriend.  Go live your life!  

I don't mean that you're lazy if you get paid - of course not!  You're not even lazy if you get paid doing something you don't want to do.  But you're a lazy SOB if you are neglecting yourself because you don't want to exert the energy after work to find a sailboat for a sunset cruise, or if you're too afraid of what your friends would think if you got up to dance, or if you're too afraid of rejection to even introduce yourself to that guy at the other end of the bar.  Snap out of it.  Don't turn on that TV tonight.  Go home and make a delicious dinner for you and your wife.  And pick up some flowers on the way.  When you feel like you should do something, do it.  Stop procrastinating.  Just go do it.  Pick up some paint and throw it on a wall or on a canvass.  Stop waiting to live your life.  Live it now.    

That got a little preachy for a Tuesday morning.  I think I'll put on some pants and make myself a smoothie to wash down those beans.  That's what I really want to do right now.