"It might be said symbolically that Americans have a taste for rocking-horses, as they
certainly have a taste for rocking-chairs. A flippant critic might suggest that they select
rocking-chairs so that, even when they are sitting down, they need not be sitting still.
Something of this restlessness in the race may really be involved in the matter" -- G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America
“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” -- St. Augustine of Hippo
Americans are not just restless, they are proud of their restlessness. It is one thing to be busy, it is quite another to pride in own's busyness. We love being busy. We like being swamped. You wear our busy schedules as a well decorated, war general wears his insignia. We put them front and center and discount other people's reports of their own busyness in light of how busy we are and if they only knew.
Chesterton's observation is on the nose. Rocking chairs allow us to stay busy even when we are resting. We are restless. We would sleep walk if we knew how.
We were made for work, which is very different than constantly working. We were not made only to work. We were meant to expand our influence and take on more and more productivity, but busyness is not productivity, it is actually its antithesis. Busyness wants to appear productive by working hard to stay and look busy. But all the work is like Shaggy and Scooby hovering in the air, legs spinning and going nowhere.
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