In Praise Of 'Loafering'

Writers Rick Bragg and Tim Kreider on the art of slow living, getting lazy, wasting a little time, to be human.

Are we busy?  Yes we are.  Just ask us.  Busy, busy, busy.  All the time.  Rushing here, rushing there.  Almost boasting that we’re busy.  Reveling in it.  Lost in the rush and onslaught.  My guests today say “come off it.”  It’s time to slow down, before life rushes by in a blur.

Get lazy.  Waste a little time.  Open our eyes and ears and hearts to what’s around us.  Rick Bragg reminds us of good old-fashioned “loafering,” for a southern pause.  Tim Kreider says beware the “busy trap.”

This hour, On Point:  Gone fishin’.  We’re celebrating the slowed-down life.  Nice ‘n easy.
-Tom Ashbrook

Rick Bragg, writer, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and a professor of journalism at the University of Alabama. He is also a Contributing Editor for Southern Living.  His column, “The Gift of Loafering” ran in the June issue of the magazine.

Tim Kreider, a writer for the New York Times, his column, “The ‘Busy’ Trap” ran in the Times two weeks ago.

Southern Living "I used to say I planned to fish, but that is a bigger lie than I now have the energy to tell. The fact is, I am the worst fisherman in my family line. My grandfather came home from the Coosa too drunk to stand, coat pockets stuffed with fish. I couldn't catch a fish standing over a washtub sober with a stick of dynamite."

The New York Times "Notice it isn’t generally people pulling back-to-back shifts in the I.C.U. or commuting by bus to three minimum-wage jobs  who tell you how busy they are; what those people are is not busy but tired."

Parents On Phones: A blog devoted to photos of parents seeming to ignore their children while speaking on a phone.

"No Hurry" by Zac Brown Band

"The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars

"Eugene" by Greg Brown