Being vs Doing

I overheard one of my American friends Charles talking to a group of Chuukese the other day. He apologetically said, “The JVC community often talks about the difference between being and doing. In America, we are very good at doing. But in Chuuk, you are all good at being” He went on to talk about how he has struggled to learn how to just be, but he sees much of the value of that lifestyle. Many of the misunderstandings and frustrations from both sides come from a mismatch of styles based on this duality of being and doing.

I had never pondered this relationship before I came to Chuuk, but is it an apt explanation of the differences between the two cultures. Americans, and many of the modern nations, are always on the go. We work long hours, we strive for efficiency, and we are obsessively concerned with maximizing our time. It seems like there are never enough hours in the day to get everything done. Idle time is seen as wasted time. If you have nothing to do, then you need to get off your lazy ass and find something to do.

Chuukese, and most island people, have a very different approach to life. Their conception of time is much more fluid and does not impose rigid restrictions on their actions. Things flow along at a leisurely pace and happen when they happen. It is uncouth to force the immediacy of an issue or fret about keeping to a strict schedule. They work sporadic hours, strive for happiness and are obsessively concerned with maximizing relaxation. Sitting around doing absolutely nothing is totally acceptable. There is no awkwardness or wasted feelings associated with idle time. Idle time is part of life. If you have nothing to do, then you don’t need to do anything.

From a doers’ perspective, the be ers’ are lazy and inefficient. But from the b eer’s perspective, the doers’ are anxious and hurried. There are good points on either side. It depends on what is more important to you. Dedicating your life to getting a job done quickly and effectively, or simply living life and doing some jobs along the way. The doing people do produce better results for a prosperous civilization. They build bigger buildings and better roads, their schools are better organized and governments more methodical. Their economies grow and they accumulate vast amounts of material wealth. People that follow the doing path become CEO’s, lawyers and politicians.

However, there are a few things that the doing folk could learn from the being folk. Simply living life at a happy pace and going along with the flow of the world allows for very relaxed lifestyle. According to a vast body of legitimate psychological research, the preaching of various spiritual teachers, and the babblings of self-help guru books, the key to happiness is living in the moment. Thinking about the future and worrying about how it will unfold is the main cause of anxiety and stress for humans. And those emotions are some of the most damaging to personal well-being. People who follow the being path become priests, philosophers and farmers.

Worrying about deadlines and schedules, stressing about quotas and commissions, and aiming towards endless accumulation of goods are all terrible detriments to the human condition. Our preoccupation with meticulous efficiency is good for business, but terrible for happiness. Half of America gulps down bottles of benzodiazapenes to counteract the crazy life that they try to sustain. Nobody in Chuuk takes anti-anxiety pills.