doing nothing

A fascinating concept, to state the least. What is nothing and how on earth do we 'do nothing'? Without delving into philosophical, psychological or in depth discussions of nothingness, I simply want to highlight what this term evokes for me.

- doing nothing as a -not so- innocent child's immediate answer to his parents, authority or to someone's intrusive question.
- doing nothing as anyone's answer to boredom, being idle, not actually 'doing something' - by this I mean, working, walking, cooking, any form of physical, sensual or mental activity.
- doing nothing as a meditative state, a conscious decision to switch off from the outside world and attempt to reach another mental state.
- doing nothing at an intermediate level - being aware of one's scattered state of mind and purposely choosing to quieten down, take a step back from active life.


As a matter of fact, none of these are really 'doing nothing'. They all form active, conscious decisions to be in a certain way, both physically and mentally. A pure form of nothingness would be death, or perhaps enlightenment, when body and mind become yolked, or when outside happenings no longer matter. Floating on a yogic cloud or living in a little bubble detached from the outside world. Bliss.

But going back to Lottie's concept of 'doing nothing', the beauty of the idea is to step back from the buzz, the confusion and speed of urban life and actively seek to switch off for a few minutes or more. Purposely sit, lie, stand in public places, with no reason but to do nothing. Passively engage with people, street-goers, shoppers and stressed out workers, to trigger some kind of thought, reflection on their overly busy lives. Why rush and stress out unnecessarily when life can be so calm, simple and pure? Living in a city makes this evermore important and we too often forget this. It's a skill. I want to see more mass gatherings of 'doing nothing' - not for any obvious (political, campaigning or artistic) purpose, just as it is. Perhaps a regular flash mobbing of nothingness?