Nothing Doing!

We all need to do more nothing. Wu-wei. Whoo-wee! Yee-haw!

We need more naps, more time to think, more time in the sunshine talking crazy and giggling at silliness.

You can’t do everything. In fact, why do anything? Everybody’s poor now, so what? The Owners will cling to their slave-labor earth-raping sky-roasting culture of useless crap till the bitter end of civilization. Relax—what can you do about it? Vote? Ha-ha: that don’t change nothing.

Phoenix Zoo

Sit down and shut up for a minute or two. Unplug all that crazy gadgetry that bleeps and bloops as you (amazingly!) multi-task through your anxious hi-tech work day. It’s OK to take an hour and watch the sun come up, or go down, or watch real people playing ball on a real field. Lie down in the grass and let your mind wander. Let bugs crawl on you--it’s OK, hardly any of ‘em bite (and those that do, not very hard).

Just Do Nothing.

Doing nothing makes life better. Like a drug: The more you do nothing, the more you want nothing. Wanting nothing is the only way to have everything. Thanks for nothing!

Towel Creek trail, AZ

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of nothingness. Insist on nothing. Only nothing can save us now. Praise nothing!

Doing nothing is “green.” Doing nothing cheers you up, another free anti-depressant. Do nothing whenever you can. Stop and smell the roses, your neighbor’s cooking, the rain, the river, the wind. (City folk: try to ignore the stench of car exhaust.)

This is the end, beautiful friend. Turn your gadget off now, and go breathe. Repeat as needed, as often as possible. Only when we all take time to do nothing, will we change the world! We want nothing, and we want it now!

Verde River, south of Camp Verde, AZ

%$#@!

”Some people are beginning to try and understand where they are, and what it would mean to live carefully and wisely, delicately in a place, in such a way that you can live there adequately and comfortably. Also, your children and grandchildren and generations a thousand years in the future will still be able to live there. That‘s thinking as though you were a native. Thinking in terms of the whole fabric of living and life....

“In our present over-speeded and somewhat abnormal historical situation, the long stability of traditional peasant cultures or primitive hunting and gathering cultures seems maybe dull. [...] Long tiresome centuries, with nothing happening. But from the spiritual standpoint, the evolution of consciousness goes at a different pace. [...] What looks like long dull centuries of simple cultures are intense meditations on one level in which inner discoveries are gradually being made.”

Gary Snyder, The Real Work, 1980, p.86

%$#@!

In 1972, Pete Townshend of The Who made his first solo recording, playing every instrument in his home studio. He’d ‘found religion’ and did some of his best work, imho, including this fave:

Let's See Action (Nothing is Everything)