My friend Martin Green is 95 years old, a Korean War Veteran, and a Writer. He writes a weekly column he calls: "Observations." I thought this one was just delightful, and so I am sharing it with his permission. And then I will Hurkle Durable.
April 2024 Obs
Observations on Some Words
Niksen: Some time ago I wrote about the Dutch word “niksen,” which means doing nothing as an alternative to busyness and which is credited to making the Dutch some of the happiest people on earth. I noted that without knowing it I had been practicing niksen. When I seemed to be just sitting around doing nothing this was obviously what I was doing.
Well, niksen might be good for the Dutch but is it really a good thing for all of us. A Newsweek article (which is where I might have come upon niksen) says that it definitely is. It reduces stress and anxiety. To quote, “By intentionally doing nothing we can disrupt that anxiety-driven habit of working to excess. …for long-term happiness and sharper focus and energy taking a break and doing nothing sometimes is far more powerful.” Also, “practicing Niksen can help maintain optimal brain health by promoting neural plasticity and preventing mental fatigue.”
Hurkle-durkle: I was reminded of niksen when I came upon an article in the Wall Street Journal about a word (or words) from the Scotch, hurkle-durkle, which means “to lie in bed or lounge about when one should be up and about.” It seems that in addition to practicing niksen that lately I’ve been hurkle-durkling.
In my younger days I used to get up early three days a week to play tennis. I may have gotten up a little later on other days to do something or other but I don’t believe I ever stayed in bed for long or lounged about. Now that I’m in my declining years and have all day to do the few things I have to or want to do I’m in no hurry to get out of bed. I might go over in my mind what I’ll have to do that day, if I have to order something from Amazon or if there are some phone calls I want to make. I might even think about what I might write in my next “Observations.” Only then will I get up and start the day.
So, is hurkle-durkling, like practicing niksen, a good thing to do? Here, there doesn’t seem to be a consensus. On the one hand, the Huffington Post quotes a “clinical social worker” as saying “sometimes prioritizing rest and having a slower start to the day is the best way to optimize your time and mental health.” On the other hand, some experts say that hurkle-durkling may disrupt your sleep cycle. As far as I can tell, staying in bed for a while hasn’t done anything to my sleep cycle, whatever that is, so I’ll continue to hurkle-durkle; besides, now that I’ve discovered the term it’s fun to say.
Napping: This is not a new word and I’ve written about it before but it seems to fit in here. Just as us old-timers may like to practice kniset and lounge in bed for a while so it seems that we start to feel drowsy in the afternoon. My father, who lived to almost 99, used to lie down in bed every afternoon and take a snooze. Other famous nappers include Thomas Edison, Napoleon, Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, John F. Kennedy, Aristotle and Bill Clinton.
Health experts seem to agree that taking a nap is good for you. WebMD says “Napping isn’t just for babies. Studies show that an afternoon nap is great for adults, too. There’s no need to feel lazy for indulging in daytime sleep. A short nap in the mid-afternoon can boost memory, improve job performance, lift your mood, make you more alert, and ease stress.” Okay, when I get that drowsy feeling I’ll emulate my father (and Napoleon and those other guys) and have what my Irish daughter-in-law calls a lie-down and invariably an afternoon nap.
Sophrosyne: This is not a word that people commonly use but in discussing the above words I wondered what the Greek word for moderation was and this is it. I think the word “moderation” came to mind because it can be applied to each of the three practices discussed above, especially to hurkle-durkling. Regarding niksen, you wouldn’t want to sit around all day doing nothing, would you? Neither would you want to spend all day in bed. And while an afternoon nap is refreshing, you wouldn’t want to sleep all day. So if you want to practice niksen, hurkle-durkle and napping, do so in moderation
Getting back to sophrosyne, moderation was an important part of Greek philosophy. To quote one article I found, “Aristotle listed moderation as one of the moral virtues. He also defined virtue as the mean between extremes.” And further on, which I found interesting: “The success of representative government and its institutions depends to a great extent on the virtue of moderation, yet the latter persists in being absent from both the conceptual discourse of many political philosophers and the campaign speeches of politicians fearful of losing elections if they’re perceived as moderates.” With our election campaigns about to start in earnest it would be nice if both parties paid heed to, the Greeks had a word for it, sophrosyne.