Should We Be Doing Something?

Two Elephants were enjoying their day sitting by a lake underneath a cabana.

They were both having a really good day.

“Well, I’m having a great day,” the first Elephant said to the second Elephant.

“Yeah, me too,” the second Elephant replied, “What a great day it is.”

The two elephants then went back to relaxing and enjoying a warm, pleasant day.

There was a slight breeze and the air smelled sweet. They each even had a nice cocktail to sip on.

“Should we be doing anything?” The first Elephant asked the second Elephant.

“No, I don’t think so…” the second Elephant replied, “I’m just enjoying doing nothing here for a bit.”

“Okay, cool,” the first Elephant responded, listless.

The Elephants were hard workers in general. They certainly put their fair share into making sure the world continued to move forward without any stops or interruptions and rarely rested, which is what made today feel so odd to them.

“You don’t feel weird,” the first Elephant once again asked the second, “Just sitting here doing nothing?”

The second Elephant bristled at this suggestion as the first Elephant continued,

“I mean, doesn’t it feel wrong to be doing absolutely nothing? If we at least got up and tried to do something then we could at least say we did something at the end of the day.”

“No I don’t feel weird, or wrong,” the second Elephant replied forcefully, “In fact, if I could, I would only ever do just enough something so that I could maximize the amount of time I do nothing else save for enjoying whatever it means to be alive on Earth.”

Now, the first Elephant felt silly for even asking. But that silly feeling was short-lived, for he quickly slipped back into relaxing on a beautiful day.

For years after that particular day had passed, the first Elephant would look back on that wonderful relaxing day very fondly, whenever he found himself buried in lots of work.