Not long ago I Skyped with a friend who was driven out of the city by high rent and now has an artist’s residency in a small town in the south of France. She described herself as happy and relaxed for the first time in years. She still gets her work done, but it doesn’t consume her entire day and brain. She says it feels like college — she has a big circle of friends who all go out to the cafe together every night. She has a boyfriend again. (She once ruefully summarized dating in New York: “Everyone’s too busy and everyone thinks they can do better.”) What she had mistakenly assumed was her personality — driven, cranky, anxious and sad — turned out to be a deformative effect of her environment. It’s not as if any of us wants to live like this, any more than any one person wants to be part of a traffic jam or stadium trampling or the hierarchy of cruelty in high school — it’s something we collectively force one another to do.
The ‘Busy’ Trap - NYTimes.com (via kenyatta)

(via teachingliteracy)

Source: The New York Times

309 Notes/ Hide

  1. delvingdeep reblogged this from teachingliteracy
  2. affably reblogged this from light-essence
  3. procras-tea-nation reblogged this from believeinbeingstrong
  4. believeinbeingstrong reblogged this from artificialpace
  5. artificialpace reblogged this from teachingliteracy
  6. helloimkayce reblogged this from teachingliteracy
  7. freckledcheeks reblogged this from teachingliteracy
  8. ahleanahmay reblogged this from teachingliteracy
  9. existentialsparkles reblogged this from teachingliteracy
  10. comedyandconceit reblogged this from jaewonkangaroo
  11. jaewonkangaroo reblogged this from easyeasytiger
  12. cinnamonandtea reblogged this from light-essence
  13. light-essence reblogged this from rayuela-loca
  14. whisperboxx reblogged this from thekitchenknight
  15. kimalexis-d reblogged this from rainhailshine
  16. rainhailshine reblogged this from teachingliteracy
  17. nana-ko reblogged this from hulpervert
  18. wh1teasnow reblogged this from teachingliteracy
  19. aseriousbibliophile reblogged this from teachingliteracy
  20. maisondanslaforet reblogged this from thekitchenknight
  21. darknight-brightstar reblogged this from teachingliteracy
  22. thekitchenknight reblogged this from the19thhistory
  23. ootnaboot reblogged this from the19thhistory
  24. chaotic-neutrality reblogged this from the19thhistory