The Lost Art of Doing Nothing 無所事事有多難？

無論是在餐廳等位，還是坐在地鐵或公交上晃蕩，生活中總有需要打發的無聊時間。若是以前，你或許還能安靜地待著，讓頭腦放空，任思緒游走。可如今，隨著智能手機等科技產品的出現，人們仿佛再也無法忍受無所事事，恨不得時時刻刻都盯著屏幕，始終保持忙碌狀態。可我們一定要過得如此“充實”嗎？重新找回無所事事的悠閑時光真有那么難嗎？

Recently， while eating lunch by myself at a local diner， I realized something that genuinely bothered me： I’m losing the ability to sit and do nothing. Where1） I used to be able to sit contently and simply daydream or observe my surroundings， I now feel anxious， restless， and awkward if I’m sitting alone with nothing specific for my hands or brain to do.

It didn’t take me long to figure out why. Looking around at the other solo diners that day， I noticed a common denominator2）： the smart phone. With sandwiches in one hand and thumbs scrolling through Facebook in the other， we all seemed incapable of disconnecting from our phones， even for a 15-minute lunch. That’s when it dawned on3） me that it’s entirely possible the most damaging effect of technology’s integration into our daily lives is that it’s replacing something many people have never thought was worth doing—sitting still and simply letting your mind wander.

As soon as I figured out what was going on， I put my phone away. But that’s when the awkwardness set in. If you want to feel out of place in a public setting these days， just start staring off into space or watching people as they walk by. Do it long enough and someone is liable to walk up and ask you if you’re feeling OK. That’s because we’re so accustomed to seeing people tethered4） to their smart phones—it’s the new normal. If you’re not killing time with your face fused to a screen， then you’re the weird one in the room.

Of course， I’m not the first person to notice how technological connectivity is making it easier to disconnect from ourselves and each other in myriad5） ways. Late last year， comedian Louis C. K.6） shared his hatred for cell phones on Conan7）， and observed how we use technology these days to distract us from thinking about the depressing aspects of life. As he points out， taking on those thoughts head on is the only way to defuse8） them of their explosive potential.

My concern is similar to his， but with a twist. I worry that the more dependent we become on technology to help us pass idle time， the less likely we’ll be to allow our minds to wander in positive ways. It’s already become commonplace for parents to hand their kids an iPhone when they’re restless in the backseat or complaining of boredom. While I recognize the logic-enhancing and hand/eye coordination benefits of video games in young people， I can’t help but wonder how that constant stimulation is taking away opportunities for them to expand their imaginations， creativity， and overall mindfulness.

I’m noticing it in older generations， too. Just the other day， I witnessed a woman walking outside on a beautiful morning with her head down， reading a Kindle. Meanwhile， the natural beauty of her surroundings was going by unnoticed. While it’s true that she was engaging her imagination through the book， her brain was missing out on a different kind of stimulation—the kind you can only get when you allow yourself to truly appreciate the natural world we’re all apart of. And lest you think stopping to smell the roses or listening to the birds sing isn’t all that important， consider that establishing a true and lasting connection to nature may be the only way we’ll be able to shake society’s general apathy toward climate change and make the real changes necessary to curb its impact.

Which brings me to my favorite argument for why we need to spend more time staring into space rather than into a screen： How else can we encourage the cutting-edge ideas， innovations， and solutions that only seem to pop into one’s mind when it’s disengaged from a specific task and allowed to wander？ I recently read Mason Currey’s book Daily Rituals： How Artists Work， which is a fascinating rundown9） of the work habits of 161 of history’s greatest creative thinkers from Matisse10） and Mahler11） to Freud and Einstein. What stood out to me by the end was how many of them took time out of their busy days to take a walk or just sit and seemingly do nothing. Who knows how many world-changing ideas first made themselves apparent during those daily moments of stillness and contemplation？ It suggested to me that what we consider “downtime” may actually be the access point to a higher plane of thinking—one that I’m hoping to find my way back into now that I’ve opened my eyes again to the world that exists outside of the phone in my pocket.

最近，我獨自一人在本地一家小餐館吃午飯時，意識到有一件事讓我著實感到心煩：我無法再坐那兒什么都不干了。過去，我總能心滿意足地坐在那兒，只是做做白日夢或看看周圍的風景。而現在，我要是一個人坐著，手里沒什么具體的東西擺弄，或腦子里沒什么特定的事可想，就會感到焦慮、不安、尷尬。

我沒花太長時間便找出了原因。環顧周圍，看看當天其他獨自用餐的人，我發現了一個共同點：智能手機。一只手拿著三明治，另一只手的拇指劃著屏幕翻閱Facebook——我們所有人似乎都無法同手機分開，哪怕是15分鐘的午餐時間也不行。就是在這時，我明白了，科技融入日常生活造成的最具破壞性的后果很有可能是，它正在取代許多人從不認為值得一做的事——安靜地坐著，任憑思緒游走。

我一弄清楚狀況就把手機收起來了。但此時尷尬就來了。現如今，你若是想在公共場合顯得格格不入，只需開始凝視前方發愣，或是盯著來來往往的行人看就夠了。這樣做的時間很長的話，就可能會有人走上前來問你是否不舒服。這是因為我們如此習慣于看到人們和自己的智能手機拴在一起——這是一種新的常態。如果你在消磨時間時，臉和屏幕沒有融為一體，那你就是這屋里的“怪咖”。

與技術的緊密聯系使人們更容易以各種各樣的方式同自我以及同彼此分隔開來。當然，我并不是第一個注意到這個問題的人。去年年末（編注：英文原文發表于2014年9月），喜劇演員路易斯·C. K.在《柯南秀》上表達了他對手機的憎惡，并說我們如今是在利用技術來轉移注意力，使自己不去想生活中令人沮喪的方面。正如他所指出的，迎面接受那些想法才是化解其潛在爆發可能的唯一途徑。

我和路易斯擔心的事差不多，但也有所不同。我擔心我們越是依賴技術來幫自己打發閑散時光，就越不可能以有益身心的方式神游四方。如果孩子在車后座上煩躁不安或者抱怨無聊，父母就會遞給他們一部蘋果手機，這已經司空見慣。我承認，電子游戲有讓年輕人增強邏輯思維和手眼協調能力的好處，但我還是會忍不住想，這種不斷的刺激會如何剝奪他們拓展想象力、創造力和整體注意力的機會。

我在年長的幾代人中也發現了這個問題。就在幾天前，一個天氣晴好的早晨，我看到一位女士一邊在外散步，一邊低著頭看Kindle。與此同時，她四周的自然美景卻被忽略掉了。沒錯，她把想象力都放在了書上，可她的大腦卻錯失了一種別樣的刺激。這種刺激只有你讓自己真正欣賞大自然時才能感受到，而我們已完全脫離自然。你覺得停下來聞聞玫瑰花香或者聆聽鳥兒歌唱沒那么重要？那就想一想，同大自然建立一種真實、持久的聯系，這或許是我們能夠改變全社會對氣候變化的漠視，并且做出切實、必要的改變來遏制其影響的唯一途徑。

為什么我們需要花更多的時間發呆而不是看手機？上述思考使我得出了自己最滿意的理由：除此之外我們沒有其他方式能如此激發前沿觀點、創新和解決方案的產生，因為只有一個人不必思考具體事務，可以神游四方時，這些東西似乎才能躍入腦中。我最近讀了梅森·柯里的《日常儀式：藝術家如何工作》。這本書極其有趣，詳細介紹了從馬蒂斯、馬勒到弗洛伊德、愛因斯坦等161位史上最偉大的創造性思想家的工作習慣。讀到最后，我最明顯的感受是，他們之中有許多人會從忙碌中抽時間散散步，或者就那么坐著，仿佛無所事事。誰知道有多少改變世界的想法就是最先出現在那些日常的安靜時分和冥想時刻呢？這讓我想到，我們所認為的“停工時間”可能正是通往更高思維水平的入口。我希望找到重回這一入口的路，因為我已再次對世界睜開雙眼，我的口袋里裝著手機，而這個世界在手機之外。

1. where [we?（r）] conj. 用于從句的開端，以表示從句中所提到的事與句子中另一部分提到的事形成對比。

2. common denominator：共同點

3. dawn on：被領悟;被理解

4. tether [?tee?（r）] vt. 將……拴（到）

5. myriad [?m?ri?d] adj. 各種各樣的

6. Louis C. K.：路易斯·C. K. （1967～），美國脫口秀主持人、演員、電視電影制作人、導演

7. Conan：《柯南秀》，美國有線電視臺的一檔夜間脫口秀節目，由柯南·奧布萊恩（Conan O’Brien）主持，是美國最受歡迎的脫口秀節目之一。

8. defuse [di??fju?z] vt. 化解，緩和，平息（危險或緊張局勢）

9. rundown [?r?n?da?n] n. 細節;詳細情況

10. Matisse：即亨利·馬蒂斯（Henri Matisse， 1869～1954），法國著名畫家，野獸派創始人和代表，以使用鮮明、大膽的色彩著稱。

11. Mahler：即古斯塔夫·馬勒（Gustav Mahler， 1860～1911），奧地利作曲家及指揮家，代表作有交響樂《巨人》《復活》《大地之歌》等。