The Day Of Nothing

The Americans have this peculiar, if somewhat obscure, holiday when everyone is encouraged to do nothing. According to Wikipedia:

National Nothing Day is an "un-event" proposed in 1972 by columnist Harold Pullman Coffin and observed annually on January 16 since 1973, when it was added to Chase's Calendar of Events. Its purpose is to provide Americans with one National day when they can just sit without celebrating, observing or honoring anything.

Again, it's somewhat odd but it highlights one feature of modern life that has become pervasive to a fault: we're all too busy doing something. It has reached a point when we instead feel guilty when we haven't done anything "productive" for the day. When we take a leave from work, it has to be because we are going to do something or go somewhere.

The day of nothing aims to rectify that. It encourages us to be lazy, complacent, to waste time. But that's not its only point. I believe it encourages us to be more introspective, to reflect on where we are in our respective lives. Inactivity pushes us to be more mindful, to put everything that we do in perspective, to retreat in order to come back strong.

I guess the Buddhists are onto something: that in doing nothing, something is made. Someone is instead reborn.