Americans obsession with the "busy ethic" hits retirees
What is it with our obsession with staying busy all the time? Have we forgotten that life is short and that nothing will matter if we get hit by a truck tomorrow? Even retirees have been struck by this 'disease" of the "busy ethic" according to this Wall Street Journal article (subscription required):
Part of the answer lies, I think, in what I call the Tyranny of Aging Well. We may no longer have bosses or clients to impress, but if you listen to Madison Avenue, AARP and a host of well-meaning advocates for the aging, there can be no rest for the weary. Longevity, we are told, is correlated with busyness, physical activity and social engagement. Geezerdom, which was supposed to be rest and relaxation free of social pressures, is marked by a new anxiety: Am I active enough?
...All such work is best accomplished at rest and in solitude. Yet the "busy ethic," as sociologist David Ekerdt calls it, permits neither isolation nor languor. So we drift, as rudderless as Benjamin [Dustin Hoffman in the Graduate] in his pool, making up the rules for this new life stage as we go along.