Reclaiming Laziness

It's a slow weekend in the ole blogosphere, eh?

Believe it or not, we have nothing to do. We planned nothing because my oldest son has been selected to play Allstar baseball this summer and traditionally, there is a huge tournament on Memorial Day weekend. We expected to spend every waking hour at the ballpark. But, due to a few snafus (we didn't actually have a complete team until last week, uniforms didn't get ordered, we have no money in our team fund yet for tournament fees) the boys are not playing this weekend. So, we found ourselves with no plans. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

Right now, husband is sitting in one lazy boy and I am sitting in the other with an obese orange feline draped accross my lower extremities. He (the husband, not the feline) is watching "Supergroup". Apparently watching aging has been rock stars stroke their own egos and make asses of themselves is must see tv. Who knew? I, of course, am blogging. Laptops and Wireless are gifts from God.

It is 12:52 on the East Coast, and neither of us is dressed. I have on my baggy gray knit pajama pants and one of husband's geek t-shirts. Husband is attired much the same. I combed my hair and brushed my teeth, but I have not put on any make-up, and no extra effort has been expended on hair. The cute little graduated bob that I just got, and that looks so awesome when I apply product and torture it with various hot implements, sort of resembles one of those interchangeable lego hair helmets that litter the floor of Diminutive One's room.

Diminutive One is at the kitchen table in his underwear, writing a story (that's my boy!). Pre-pubescent one is upstairs glued to a game called "Runescape", also in his underwear. I have not prepared an actual meal today. The boys have grazed on granola bars, cold cereal, fruit (hey, fruit roll-ups count), gold fish, that odd rubbery cheese facsimile that Kraft makes and children of all ages seem to adore, and deli meat sans bread. It is the kind of day that we have not enjoyed in a very, very long time. Neither one has mentioned going anywhere except for one half-hearted suggestion by Diminutive One that we go to the pool. We might. Or not.

We used to have these days pretty regularly. At least one day of each weekend was dedicated to sheer unadulterated laziness. They were much the same as I just described, except that we had naptime to look forward to. Sometimes we napped too. Sometimes, we did...other things. I didn't cook or clean. We ordered out and let chaos reign. We elevated laziness to an art form. It was indulgent and delicious and revitalizing. We looked forward to our lazy days with almost fanatical zeal. One reason (among many) that we never made churchgoing a habit, is that it would interfere with our lazy days. I know, it's shameful.

But as the boys got older, our lives got increasingly hectic. Our lazy days declined in frequency, and then, without really realizing that it had happened, they were gone altogether in the whirlwind of activities, engagements and responsibilities.

Now to be honest, we love the busyness. And we would rather the kids be out on a ballfield, playing at a friend's house, or rollerskating than parked in front of the tv or the computer or the gamecube. We enjoy participating in a lot of those activities with them and we feel that it's beneficial to all of us to be out doing, and seeing, and experiencing. We've been a part of the sports scene for so long now that we know everyone, and we look forward to the mostly mindless but nevertheless enjoyable chatter that parents indulge in when their kids are playing. We aren't solving the world's problems on the bleachers, but, we do sometimes solve each others'.

Busyness has become such a way of life, that when a lazy day is providentially dropped in our laps, we sort of flounder. The fine art of laziness has become obsolete in our lives and the skills we acquired have atrophied in the face of relentless activity and productivity.

Last night, on the way home form visiting my in-laws, we were struck with the realization that we had an entire day of nothing before us.

Husband: "What should we do tomorrow?"

BA: "I don't know. Should we do something?"

Husband: "We could do something."

BA: "Yeah. We could."

Husband: "So..what should we do?"

BA: "I don't know. What do you think we should do?"

Husband: "I don't know."

And so, through sheer apathy and indecisiveness, we reclaimed our laziness.

A few moments ago, husband yawned, stretched and said,

"Well, it's 2:00. Should we do something?"

I responded with an unequivocal,

"NO."

Behold the laziness and rejoice, for it is good.