Something to do

I've been checking in here every now and then, but the place seemed a bit quiet. In an exchange with a golf professional who I know and admire, he said the following to me:

"The worse punishment is to put someone in a jail cell with nothing to do. Even a dog will go find something to play with to keep busy."

Golf, being a hobby of which I'm sure some others here may share, is one of those perplexing "mind over matter" games. My golf pto friend, having seen my swing, was rehashing to me his philosophy that good golfers are "not there" when they swing--they don't think; rather, they do.

In Havens's book The Wisdom of Milton H. Erickson, on page 91, Erickson is quoted as follows:

"It would spoil the magician's trick if you knew how he did that trick. If you want to enjoy swimming, do not analyze it. If you want to make love, don't try to analyze it."
(Erickson, Rossi 1976, p.255)

My friend reminded me that people always find something to do. In the case of a skill best left to the unconscious, like the golf swing, they tend to think. This reminded of something else that I read about Erickson--something to the affect that when he did something, he enjoyed it, because to do something was part of human nature (I can't recall where I read that one).

I wanted to spark the void here and I wonder what others think about this. Aren't there some things that are enjoyable to do, and other things that are enjoyable to be done?

Steven Stewart
steven.t.stewart@unb.ca

Replies:

Re:Something to do, by Richard Blumenthal, 05/18/02

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