Are We so Busy being Rich or Famous or Saving the World that we stopped Really Living?
Lessons from a Children’s Fantasy book called MOMO
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. ― Henry David Thoreau
Recently I noticed myself getting busier, doing more and more “good things” which might seem like a good thing; but I not so sure. I have this haunting feeling that something is not quite right: as if my REAL life is being frittered away doing “important” and “good” things for other people and our world – both of which need all the help they can get! And yet, even knowing that, a small little voice nags me as it says, ever so quietly, like a breath during a storm, barely audible: “Stop! Feel the sun! See the diamonds sparkling in the snow! Savour the delicious food you have for dinner! Enjoy laughter with your friends! Sleep in and take an afternoon nap – the world will turn without you for a few more minutes!”
Do also have that feeling that you somehow missed the REAL life that you were supposed to lead? Is there a nagging thought that fulfilling your Destiny does not mean saving the world or having influence, but is rather finding a project or activity or place/person to nurture that you love and take care of it and grow it for the future? Like Faust I sometimes feel that we have sold our souls to the Devil for some exterior motive – and this includes doing the right thing for a good cause and saving the world. I think that Marshall McLuhan famous quote about technology “The Medium is the Message” also applies to HOW we live our lives AS we ‘save the world’ [or become an “influencer”]. Now that I am retired and more emotional space and perspective I more and more see HOW we do what we do matters MORE then what we do. As an Austrian philosopher once said:
Better to be a fantastic shoe maker than a terrible surgeon
At the end of the day all we do will be washed away by the sands of time but who we can inspire to carry the torch of life forward into the future so that life is affirmed, that is, ALL life, – that is something that can continue to grow into the future and that inspiration happens by HOW we do what we do. Perhaps all we can and should do is be authentic and real and treat other the way we want to be treated and be grateful and appreciative and share and work hard and smile and laugh and sing and dance a lot. Now that we are clearly in a Pollyanna state of mind [“Pollyanna”, based upon a children’s book, has become a byword for someone who, like the title character, has an unfailingly optimistic outlook;[1] a subconscious bias towards the positive is often described as the Pollyanna principle], let’s look at another child’s story book, this time a modern fairy tale from Germany titled MOMO. I read it in the original German over 30 years ago and made a large impression on me. Here is a quote to give you a feel for what this fairy tale is “about”.
“…it’s like this. Sometimes, when you’ve a very long street ahead of you, you think how terribly long it is and feel sure you’ll never get it swept. And then you start to hurry. You work faster and faster and every time you look up there seems to be just as much left to sweep as before, and you try even harder, and you panic, and in the end you’re out of breath and have to stop–and still the street stretches away in front of you. That’s not the way to do it.
You must never think of the whole street at once, understand? You must only concentrate on the next step, the next breath, the next stroke of the broom, and the next, and the next. Nothing else.
That way you enjoy your work, which is important, because then you make a good job of it. And that’s how it ought to be.
And all at once, before you know it, you find you’ve swept the whole street clean, bit by bit. what’s more, you aren’t out of breath. That’s important, too…”
Yes, it’s only a story, but it is a story about reality, disguised as a fairy tale, as good mythology is always about a deeper truth. In the tale a young girl, Momo, lives happily in an ancient Roman amphitheater in Italy and plays with her friends. One day some little grey men come and offer all her friends, one at a time, a way to make their dreams of fame and fortune to come true. The offer works like this: these “little grey men” [hint: they are the devil] make you so busy that you get what you desire – but at the expense of time – your time – your life because all your life has is time – and these “little grey men” exist only by using your time. In other words, they suck the essential part of you that makes you truly alive and they live on it. The only person to say NO to them is MOMO… and thus then the struggle ensues…
Sounds like all of us to me. Are we so busy that we are missing the whole point of being alive? Here are some quotes that make the same point from a spiritual perspective, by Thomas Berry, a Catholic priest and cultural historian who focussed on our relationship with creation, well known for this book, The Dream of the Earth (1988):
The most difficult transition to make is from a human-centred to a life-centred norm of progress. If there is to be any true progress, the entire community must progress. Any ‘progress’ of the human at the expense of the larger life community must ultimately lead to a diminishment of human life itself.
We are talking only to ourselves. We are not talking to the rivers; we are not listening to the wind and the climate. Most of the disasters that are happening now are a consequence of that spiritual deficit.
So let’s be more human. Let’s be less busy. Smile more. Dance more. Be with our friends more. Enjoy our dinner more. Act as if the pain of another is our pain [because it is]. Let’s be our authentic self that exists only when it is inextricably linked with all of the non-human life around us. I leave you now to ponder the beauty and joy of being alive in a mysterious universe which we are privileged to be a part of with a poem by my daughter’s favourite poet, Mary Oliver.
The Witchery of Living [only a part]
The witchery of living is my whole conversation
with you, my darlings. All I can tell you is what I know.
Look, and look again. This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.
It’s more than bones.
It’s more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.
It’s more than the beating of the single heart. It’s praising.
It’s giving until the giving feels like receiving. You have a life—just imagine that!
You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe still another…
Leave a Reply