The usefulness of the useless

I was brought up in an environment, in which everything had to be useful.  I came to deeply believe that “time is money”, “time should not be wasted”, “some people are useless”, “you should be doing something right now”, “get up and get useful”.  Most people translate usefulness as the production of products or services or merely, money.  At a certain level I believed that too.  Not necessarily that everything done had to have a monetary value, but that everything had to be directly useful.  “Study to get into college”, “work until late so as to get promoted”, “go shopping because we are running out of groceries”, “mob the floor because it needs to be clean”, “buy this one because it’s cheaper”, “choose that one because it’s more practical”,  “don’t waste your time talking to that idiot”, “don’t spend so much time on tv”, “why don’t we go to the museum instead of the movies?” There is good reason for everything we do.  If there is no use for it, we kill it. Nuccio Ordine in his masterpiece “The usefulness of the useless”*, tells us otherwise. 

As Ordine preaches, and as I have learned after a chain reaction of ill work relationships, an extremely busy family life and a series of health problems, life is not only about usefulness.  At least it is not only about that which is perceived as useful in financial terms or even in terms of our survival.  There is more to life.  Much more.

Having deprived our heart and being from what they truly want and love, leads us to unhappiness.  Unhappiness takes many forms: depression, anxiety, anger, problematic relationships, and it is to a certain extent the result of having turned our backs to deep contentment and meaningfulness. 

Listening to music only for the sake of your ears, painting (and often throwing the canvas in the trash) only to express your creativity, stealing thirty minutes off your busy day to walk in nature.  Just because you want to.  Like a toddler who digs her hands into the mud just for the enjoyment of getting all muddy and having the feeling of the cool, soft substance running though her fingers.  Like the little boy who pinches a classmate on the arm simply to enjoy that instantaneous expression of surprise.  We were all kids once.  What has happened to us?  We became useful.  We un-became joyful, interested, intrigued, spontaneous, passionate. 

Ordine also reminds us that many of the world’s greatest discoveries, inventions, works of music and art, were the result of people having been submerged into their passion for days, months, years - often with no clear target in mind, or none at all. Having indulged in the pleasure of the activity itself.  Sometimes to the detriment of their conventional carriers and social status.  Following their passion, they achieved unimaginable results.  Think what would have happened if those people had decided to do something seemingly more useful at the time.  The world today would have been so much poorer: literally and metaphorically.  With no electricity, no music, no air transport, no cinema…

Orville Wright.  Many would say that only a lunatic would have attempted to “fly” in 1903.  Only a complete nut case would have invested so much time in such an impossible and useless deed.  Why didn't he just go on making bicycles – his well-established profession, a useful job in which he was good at.? 

Imagine students studying for the sake of learning and for the satisfaction of acquiring knowledge, instead of focusing on the grade as the end result.  Imagine our doctors healing, not for the money but for the satisfaction of offering humanity the gift of health. 

At the end of the day, the useless may actually be the most useful.  If doing nothing is just laziness, then why is meditation so helpful?  If having a rest is shameful, why is it prescribed by the doctor to overcome illness and regain strength?  If pleasure is so wrong, why does it feel so good?

Referring to a perennial tree, the Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou, said: “this tree cannot be used.  This is why it has become so huge!”

I invite you reflect:  how many of the tasks you do are useless but fill your being and soul?  Would you be willing to fit more of these into your daily lives?

I have, and I have seen the difference!

*L’ utilité de l’ inulite, Nuccio Ordine