“What have you been up to?”
And the reply is, “Not much.”
Or, “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.”
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If you take these typical responses at face value, it would seem that everyone has a whole lot of nothing happening in their lives. So it got me thinking, could I make the topic of this week’s “Tuesday’s Thoughts” about nothing?
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It’s kind of difficult writing about nothing, because as you read this, you’re reading something. And although I’ve strung together a bunch of words to form a sentence, this paragraph is talking about nothing in particular. It makes me wonder if I should be offended, or disappointed, in that I’ve spent the last several minutes writing about nothing. What does that say about you as a reader who’s reading this?
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I think that all of us who have years of experience working in emergency medicine want to walk into work with nothing going on. Of course when you first start a career in this field you don’t want nothing either, because you fear that moment when, “poop hits the fan.” For those of us with experience you just don’t want to deal with the craziness anymore. Yet, that desire for craziness never goes away and when there’s too much nothing, boredom ensues and you ultimately crave something.
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So do I believe all those people who say that they have nothing going on? I don’t, because it seems that everyone has too much happening in their lives. People are getting busier and busier and this “on the go” lifestyle is accelerating faster and faster. Work, kids, commitments, gatherings and god knows what else can be added here, is constantly keeping everyone moving. Does anyone truly sit still for even a little bit or has everyone developed some degree of ADHD?
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I realize the pandemic has put a damper on everyone’s busyness as well as the opportunity to be involved in it. Maybe herein lies the problem; has everyone become so accustomed to doing so much that they can’t handle doing less? To put it another way, has having nothing, or less of something, to do suddenly made everyone stir crazy?
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I don’t know how my coworkers feel, but I swear I’ve seen more mental issues pass through the emergency department over the last several months. Could it be coincidence? Possibly, and while I don’t have any hard data to quantify my observations, I do know that I’ve read about these things occurring more often to people of all ages and walks of life.
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Maybe we need a lesson in nothing. Immerse ourselves in silence and try to smoother that inner chatter that constantly pushes us to keep moving. Maybe we need to take a moment and sit outside, listen to the wind, the sound of nature and engage our senses in the slow movement of the day.
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Are you curious to see what nothing looks like? Lie on your back and stare into the night sky. Sure there is a bunch of stars up there, but imagine all that dark nothingness between them.
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If you really want to boggle your mind, contemplate the thought that space never ends. All those stars and galaxies that surround our planet are expanding outward into the farthest voids of space, a space that goes on and on forever. Talk about venturing forth into an endless nothing.
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Do people fear nothing? I kind of think that they do. Just about everyone in our society holds onto the belief that they are free to do anything they want, but still maintain some semblance of control over every aspect of that freedom. It seems to me that having nothing at all is to be totally free since there’s nothing to tie you down. There’s a frustration, or maybe it’s anxiety, that develops because you can’t control nothing when there’s nothing to control in the first place.
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So how do I conclude this topic of nothing? Would it be best to simply write_______? Instead of doing that and keep you hanging, I will leave you with a Buddhist quote about nothing. “Nothing is permanent. Don’t stress yourself too much because no matter how bad the situation is…it will change.”
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I still believe the majority of us want to be in this together, let's not be too close together while we're all in it.