Is There Life After Work? A World Without Work. Contemplation.com. As soon as I arrived, I knew why I had come. In Vientiane, the capital, kids were fishing along the main street -- an unpaved red-dirt path -- and a call across town involved ringing an operator, waiting for her to call back and then tugging gently at the wire while speaking in a whisper. At 1 P.M. on the Friday I arrived, the center of downtown -- Laos's Times Square -- consisted of me, a drowsy rickshaw driver and a fountain with no water.
When I stepped into my hotel, however -- a simple midprice place along the Mekong -- I was greeted by the Ghost of Laos Future. A room beside the lobby blinked with flashing screens accommodating E-mail needs, and Top Cat was agitating for some pizza on the Cartoon Network near my bed. "I'm sorry, sir," said the cashier when I took my leave of Laos, congratulating him on how (relatively) quiet and unspoiled his country was. "Next time you come, we'll have full Internet connections. " What Every Diaper Bag Needs pg 2. What Every Diaper Bag Needs pg 1. The 'Busy' Trap.
Anxiety: We worry. A gallery of contributors count the ways. If you live in America in the 21st century you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” “So busy.” “Crazy busy.” It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint.
It’s not as if any of us wants to live like this; it’s something we collectively force one another to do. 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. Brecht Vandenbroucke Even children are busy now, scheduled down to the half-hour with classes and extracurricular activities. The present hysteria is not a necessary or inevitable condition of life; it’s something we’ve chosen, if only by our acquiescence to it. Our frantic days are really just a hedge against emptiness. I am not busy. For Executive Women, Is Maternity Leave Necessary?
The Upside Of Being An Introvert (And Why Extroverts Are Overrated)