It’s All About Stuff To Do

Photo by mauro mora on Unsplash

What is life really about? I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s about stuff to do. And here’s where all the problems start.

The thing is, the only thing we really need to do, is eat something and wash it down with some water. Once you’ve done that, you’re dandy. Sorted. Except you’re not, because after that, you start looking around for something to do. You say to yourself, Now that I am satisfied, I need something to do.

Of course, for our ancestors, most of the stuff they did was in pursuit of getting that meal and a cup of water. This was good, because they didn’t have to think too much about what to do. It was decided for them. Also, because it took so much of their time, this gathering of food and water, they didn’t have much time left over to decide what to do with. So they went to sleep. All was well.

But as time went on and it became easier to get fed and watered, people looked for other stuff to do. People started dancing, singing, painting, drawing, drinking alcohol, having sex, fighting, writing and putting on plays. Pretty soon there was loads of stuff to do.

And so industries and companies sprung up to provide the people with places and services for them to more efficiently do the things they wanted to do. So now people were needed to run these organisations for other people to do stuff.

This began to take away time from the people facilitating the other people’s stuff to do, from their stuff to do. This makes these people unhappy. Chances are, at this moment, you may be in a place or situation where you are doing stuff you don’t want to do. The reason  for this, is you are doing stuff that allows other people do stuff they want, or imagine they want, to do. It’s not the stuff you want to do.

So to make you less unhappy, the people for whom you’re enabling the doing of stuff, are paying you money. This money buys you stuff, to do stuff with. It buys you stuff to do, maybe a holiday, maybe to drive a car en route to doing stuff, maybe pay for your phone that you use to arrange doing stuff. You’re kind of doing a trade of stuff to do.

But at least, even though the doing of stuff to enable other people to do stuff is not what you want to do, it does at least give you something to do. Which is at least partly the idea. For this reason many people get so used to doing stuff for other people, that frankly they are lost when they finally reach an age at which they are let off from doing it. They no longer have stuff to do. Many die quite soon after.

But some people are really lucky. Some lucky people find that the stuff they want to do is providing stuff or stuff to do for other people. These people are very happy. Except that they can end up spending so much time doing their stuff, that it leaves no time to be with the people who want to do stuff with them. So the people who want to be with them have no stuff to do. They leave the lucky and happy person making that person unhappy. So unhappy that they can no longer do the stuff that made them happy. So now they have nothing to do. They have to find something else to do, which is often to go into therapy.

Most wars are over stuff to do. One country doesn’t have much stuff to do, or perhaps they are poor and not in a position to do much stuff. They want to do more of what the other country are doing. So they invade and this gives them something to do. For a while they are happy.

Who knows, maybe we could all be happier by doing nothing, at least some of the time. And remember, whenever you’re at work and stressing about getting stuff done and it all seems so important, you’re just running around so other people have some stuff to do. It’s really no big deal.