Apologia of the uselessness

You live your everyday life tied up between due dates and deadlines, you work hard to succeed in your job, you earn the money you deserve, breathe in the spare time, behave efficiently.

You’ve mistaken your existence for a productivity machine, ready to eat you up if you take a small step back to enjoy the view and that is not entirely your fault; living in the 21st century means growing up with the invisible idea that you’re just a gear of the mechanism around you.

Why do people learn dead languages?

Why  do people paint, write a diary, take care of animals, roll down the hills when covered in snow?

What’s the point in meeting new friends even if you don’t have “time to waste”, why share food?

Or even more, why having no plan when travelling, why help someone carry a bag?

You don’t get paid for any of that. You won’t have your time back nor will you get a “thank you” most of the times, maybe you will get lost and scared without a map, maybe the words on your pages will fade away and will never be read again, your pets will leave you before you leave them, you’re too hungry to share food and the snow is too cold.

And of course dead languages, most of all, are useless. At least, that’s what you heard.

But what exactly is “useless”? A good definition could be: something that doesn’t add anything to your lifestyle in terms of money, reciprocity of gestures, material gains. A nice walk into the woods, for example: free, without any other aim than to “recharge the batteries”.

So what’s the point in putting so much effort into something without receiving anything back?

The only thing you can ask yourself is: why not? Why not giving it a try? The worst that can happen is to find a new hobby.

The capitalistic model shaped our economy as well as our minds and pushes us everyday to set a goal after another before throwing ourselves into new activities, finding a purpose in terms of utilitarianism, not leaving space to the imponderable.

But through these dark and emotionally dry times there’s a pale light shining in the distance: curiosity, the only antidote to the toxicity of this lifestyle.

Curiosity – in latin curiositas, which got Ulysses tied to the main mast of his ship just to hear mermaids singing, something truly useless but after all… - it is the best choice we have to save ourselves from the drift.

Without curiosity we’re just walking flesh, talking about nothing and aspiring to be nothing more.

Curiosity is with us since the very first day of our lives, it pushes us to touch and taste, to discover this beautiful world that surrounds us through his colours and shapes: children don’t have plans, don’t self-impose limits and of course they always find various and creative solutions to solve their problems.

They’re still unspoiled and that is the key. Living every moment as if it is the big, first step into something unknown takes to another level of consciousness, giving ourselves the chance to actually embrace other sides of our personality, many talents or interests. Imitating children’s behaviour is a surprisingly healthy way to grow: the treasure in “showing the inner child” is in the effect of building a personality and finding balance.

Those “batteries” to recharge are just another way to say that sometimes all you need is time to bake a cake or guess the shape of clouds to feel good in your skin again.

As if there’s a hidden voice echoing “you’re doing fine, you’re here, you’re still you”.

It’s not usual to throw ourselves into something big without the risk of getting lost on the way: doing something useless puts you on the spot again, ready to enjoy the little things you’ve been missing out because you weren’t paying enough attention, you weren’t feeling amazed.

Is devoting your life to profit worth it just to accomplish something that is not even your main goal, following a path tracked by others before you, sailing in a sea of pressure without ever taking an hour or two to meditate?

Uselessness is meditation too.

Doing something totally useless reconnects us with our inner child and human nature: it shows ourselves that the only way to learn something is to live it. By experience you live, by experience you grow. At the same time doing something useless shows you a range of possibilities, making you more empathetic towards others: there are no rules, everyone counts, every difference is richness. So why hesitate, why have a judgemental approach?

Indeed, love itself is a fundamental point in this picture: self-love as well as selflessness are two different ways to free ourselves from the same prejudices that shaped our way of feeling and showing emotions.

It is the primary stimulus that moves everything and takes us closer.

To spontaneously give is a gift itself and it’s necessary for the receiver as well as the giver: it brings connection, kindness. It could lead somewhere, it could not: so let’s find out, instead of remaining stuck.

The truthful way of learning is the one that helps the process of detachment from every other influence and in the end allows you to make the puzzle again, sticking together the pieces with the glue of knowledge: you’ll end up having this beautiful view to enjoy, don’t let it slip away.