"There were people who had the potential to [be the voice of this generation], but they went on vacation. So when Justin [Timberlake] went on vacation, I made albums." ~ Kanye West
Okay, Kanye isn't the best guy to emulate. But I do think we throw away a lot of our potential on wasted free time.
When other people are watching football, you could be writing one more chapter of a book. When everyone else is playing XBox, you could be dreaming up a new venture.
Interesting, but if we were all busy writing our own books, then there wouldn't be anyone reading them while on vacation. = )
Posted by: Matt Doebler | February 05, 2009 at 09:36 AM
"You can't fathom my love dude, lock yourself in room doing 5 beats a day for 3 summers..."
That line in his song "Spaceship" has haunted me for a while now. It haunts me everytime I play NBA2K9 on my XBox360...and now this post will haunt me. CURSE YOU BEN! LOL!
Posted by: Steve Patton | February 05, 2009 at 09:37 AM
what if I like to watch football and play video games???
Posted by: Brad | February 05, 2009 at 10:07 AM
brad, you could've been the voice of this generation. =)
Posted by: Ben Arment | February 05, 2009 at 10:28 AM
I couldn't agree more...for me it reads like this:
"While everyone else here at work is gabbing and gossiping and surfing the internet, I'm writing for my blogs
http://www.prayersforblowouts.com
and
http://www.bryanallain.com/blog
and working on a book."
keep your love locked down, Ben.
Posted by: bryan a | February 05, 2009 at 11:06 AM
Challenging
Posted by: Josh Bayne | February 05, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Or you can go on vacation and spend time recharging your energy, and reconnecting with God, God's creation, and the culture and community that God has created.
I think that in the U.S. (and other places) we tend to create a workaholic culture that places undue emphasis on effort and certain kinds of achievement, and we are poorer for it.
Posted by: Richard | February 05, 2009 at 11:59 AM
hey i'm here to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
i expected a strong defense of the status quo in the comments.
Posted by: Ben Arment | February 05, 2009 at 12:44 PM
This might really challenge how we understand Sabbath. Is Sabbath productive? Could writing, blogging, participating in community, in fact be a way of practicing Sabbath? Or, is Sabbath not so much about "not working" and playing xBox or whatever as much as it is about doing something different than what you normally do on a daily basis.
I think there is a lot of wasted free time in workdays including my own. I never feel my vacation time is wasted. Its concentrated time that I spend with my wife and family, experience new places, read new books...
Posted by: Matt Brough | February 05, 2009 at 03:15 PM
I considered skipping taking the time to comment on the post and focus on my work, but it was just too good. Thanks for the challenging post. Back to work!
Posted by: Ryan Moede | February 06, 2009 at 09:03 AM