Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” So, let’s examine it together. In Etymology, I’ll be presenting a word each week with its generally accepted definition and riffing on this word as a way to get us to talk about life together. This is meant to be a discussion based article, with emphasis on “together.” In one sense, these articles will be written and complete when they are published, but they will not be whole without your input. All of us could use better words to describe our lives. So, let’s go through life together in words. Helping each other and improving together and always remembering to breathe.
By Brianne Leith
Thoughts are racing through my head. The words, phrases and images that construct my thoughts are as busy as I am. They are “fully occupied in a particular activity,” “full of bustle,” “not free, committed, and unable to undertake another activity,” “engaged in constant, purposeful work,” and they are even busy as in “elaborate and characterized by over complex detail, colors or patterns.”
I am facing a dilemma. I am busy. I need to write articles. I need to think straight. But my thoughts are too busy to be bothered by my endless tasks. I am looking at a headless chicken, watching it run and spin wildly out of control, and then I realize I am looking in a mirror, shocked that I had grown feathers.
Busy is a relative word. It might be one of the only words coming out of my mouth for the past few weeks. The Annapolis Sound. Vivo. The Capital. Friends. Constant “headless”-ness. I am busy writing two articles a week for The Sound. The planning, interviewing and stress that coincides with A Decibel Disparate always astounds me, though talking to passionate people makes all the pain involved worth it. I work 8 hours a day at Vivo. I mass-produced twelve freelance articles for The Capital in two weeks for an advertorial section coming in an upcoming publication called Profiles of Success. I try to see friends, clean my apartment and do laundry at points also. I am stretching myself to a thin crazy sliver. Now, with being relative, my feeling of unbearable busyness is almost ridiculous. One friend of mine is out of his house eleven hours a day, or more, in meetings, running a website, appeasing writers, filming and everything else under the sun. This lifestyle and job is cruelly masked and its hardships ignored by the title of “entrepreneur.” He also has two young children and a wife to always take into consideration and spend time with. He is busy. He is much busier than I am, and would consider my life easy. But I am busy. Words can be so subjective. Life can be so subjective.
Busy also has dual connotations, negative and positive. The one that has been prominent to me recently is the negative. One friend even took offense when I said, “I’m sorry. I’m really busy right now, but I will come out when I finish my article.” He reacted in a sing song, “Ooohh, you’re BUUUUSSSYY.” Words can be taken completely incorrectly, especially busy. The level of your busyness, normally is not your choice. I do not want to be busy and incapable of breathing or being with friends. It is just a state people can be in. Busy. Maybe the word is offensive because others feel that you are acting superior to them. Too busy for them. Does “occupied” sound better? “Not free” definitely is better.
Jailed. Restrained.
Held against my will by what I am doing.
Every part of my being is busy. I have become engulfed in the busy. I have become one with the busy. My schedule, my thoughts, and even my clothing have become busy.
Anybody have any good advice for the busy disease?
Busybusybusybusybusybusybusy. B..U……. man, I have to go now.
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
John Lennon (1940 – 1980), “Beautiful Boy”
Support The Sound - share our work!
