On a new website I've been introduced to (kyria.com), I recently read an article about sloth. It's one of the seven deadly sins, you know. "The avoidance of physical or spiritual work." Think couch potato. Yeah, I'm slothful.
What I found most intriguing about this article, however, was the quality it named as sloth's opposite: enthusiasm! Not busy-ness: the author notes that many people use busy-ness as an excuse to avoid the work they really need to be doing. It becomes just a tool to enable one's sloth. Ouch.
But enthusiasm -- that's what whips sloth's sorry little bootie! Get excited about something and it's impossible to avoid the work involved because the work becomes a joy!
This point stuck because it occurred to me that, in general, I don't often get enthusiastic about much anymore. Yes, that's sad, I know. It's a condition that has developed over the years, and I think I've always attributed it to my sleep problems and the resulting lethargy. But I suspect now that I may have been mistaken in that assumption. I suspect it may be a self-protection thing. You get excited about something . . . you're disappointed . . . and so you stop getting excited to avoid the inevitable let-downs. Better to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed again.
But I don't think I'm supposed to live that way. It leads to sloth -- which, again, is one of the seven deadly sins, people! Deadly, I believe, because it sucks the joy out of life, and a life without joy is not worth living. Better to live life with enthusiasm, even if it means the dashing of dreams sometimes. You probably already knew that. I needed a reminder.
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