Dolce Far Niente (Sweet Nothingness)

Idleness is the devil’s workshop. Doing nothing is boring. Couch potatoes, loafers and other losers are at the risk of depression. Inactivity is not a healthy habit. And so they say. Tradition has a long reservoir of clichés condemning the absence of work. Our folks taught us that it is never good to do nothing.
Yet at the core of Latin Europe, particularly in Italy and Spain, the sweetness of doing nothing is so embedded in a cultural routine that any outsider could easily mistake it for sloth. When businesses close at mid-day for a three hour lunch break, when workers stroll lazily through a park, and when lovers peck each other at the corner plaza, any non-Latin tourist could probably think that there might be some official holiday. Worse, it could be interpreted as a simple decadence, a sheer lack of work. Or is it?
In the emerging markets, somewhere in the former colonies of Spain, Great Britain and the United States, there are pockets of total idleness. Back home, right in front of a convenience store is a bench of young men chatting on a week day over a bottle of rum. In front of a church are cachexic mendicants emaciated under the sun imploring for a grain of food or a couple of cents. And among those who can afford, even in developed countries, there are those who dwell in front of the screen from sunrise to sunset, devouring calories in plastic bags and gulping sugar in their drinks. Most of them are either starving at the point of perdition or they are so obese and about to implode. Their common denominator: doing nothing most of that time, if not doing anything at all, all the time.
Three years ago, a movie based on the novel “Eat, Pray and Love” written by Elizabeth Gilbert and portrayed in the silver screen by Julia Roberts popularized the notion of “dolce far Niente”, the sweetness of doing nothing. Nothing new. It was already a part of the Roman lifestyle way back when Rome was an empire and it persisted all the way through the internet era. Hollywood did more when it added saccharine through its culinary episodes, care free travel, and hours and hours of free lance conversation over wine, pasta and cheese, romanticizing the thought that there must be something fun in sheer idyllic encounters.
Well, the former, the latter and back to the former, to my opinion, are all inaccurate representations of “dolce far Niente”. There is nothing positive about idleness, nothing creative when there is no work, nothing blessed without food, nothing pleasant with poverty, and nothing constructive in a permanent wandering lifestyle void of any responsibility. God created something from nothing. He drew being from an empty space. He got rid of nothingness. So nothingness must lack good. And something must be better than nothing. What then is sweet about nothingness; what good could it have?
“Hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again, because a vision softly creeping, left its seed while I was sleeping, and the vision that was planted in my brain still remains, within the sound of silence” (Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel)
Musicians claim that most of their work emanate from silence. In any bar, when notes combine, a melody is not born without the soft hush, no matter how brief or extended. Silence is the sibling of nothingness. In music, it is intended, designed and desired; without which, there can only be an obtrusive noise or a conglomeration of sounds. Silence is when nothing is heard; and upon that nothingness, music arises.
The sweetness of doing nothing is an active human choice, chosen as a rational option, and opted as a positive alternative against the backdrop of frantic motions disguised as tasks. When we choose not to rush because there are things that can wait. When we deliberately take advantage of our legal benefits not to work, when we stand still or sit still to ponder upon the meaning of our 10-minute break, and when we turn off the computer as we notice the flickering monitor fade into darkness, we flow into that sweetness of nothingness, an active choice not to do, a deliberate decision simply to be.
“Dolce far Niente” is deeper than a Roman lifestyle. It is that unspoken prescription for a balanced life that begs for a positive silence. In the midst of our hectic rituals and busy routines, the most efficient antidote against insanity would be the sweetness of doing nothing. Ask for a day off. Then go to work. Sit down in your cubicle. Do not turn on any light. Stay still. Sit still. Enjoy the sweetness of being at work but deliberately and legally choosing not to work. Confirm the fact that work belongs to you and you do not belong to work. Sweet.
For mothers, those who come home right after work, try to use the front door. Avoid the garage that leads to the kitchen. Stay in the formal living room for a while, the one reserved for guests. Resist the temptation of getting the broom or the vacuum cleaner. Rest. Enjoy that nothingness you so deserve.
For the boss, the manager or the supervisor, write a note on your door that says: “Do not disturb, out for silence”; and then indicate the time frame you so desire. When that time comes, turn off your lights, unplug the phone and disconnect the fax machines. Sit still. Be still.
And for all the writers and readers of the world, stand up, shake your shoulders, put away the book, the keyboard and the thoughts. Stare at the sky. Look at the heavens. Walk a mile. Breathe as deep as you can, and smile. The block that used to be a negative force is now a positive choice. Allow ideas to flow or understanding to stream according to its time. This is nothingness, “dolce far Niente”.
An idle mind is a devil’s workshop only when that idleness comes uninvited and is allowed to simmer in chaos. Nothingness is destructive when it invades the space or time belonging to a responsible task. It is evil when poverty forces humanity to accept suffering because resources are scarce and options are not available. “Dolce far Niente” is the topping atop an insipid life that claims back the light from the darkness of our days. When we desire, when we intend, when we plan and structure the positive act of doing nothing, then silence will speak a thousand words and our lives will not be as boring or as stressful as they were not meant to be.
Go. Do nothing.