LAZY DOES IT

The Importance of Being

Lazy: In Praise of Play, Leisure, and

Vacation

Where has leisure time gone? Formany physicians, what used to be 2weeks of summer vacation is now justa series of long weekends. Accordingto statistics from the US LaborDepartment, Americans have lost 16leisure hours a week over the past 20years, and the average worker,whether white- or blue-collar, nowputs in a workweek of close to 50hours and gets just 11/2 weeks ofvacation. About 25% of Americanstake no vacation at all. We need tolearn guiltless goofing off, says AlfredGini, PhD, professor of philosophy atLoyola University in Chicago andauthor of ($22.95; Routledge). Doingnothing is fundamentally necessaryfor human beings, Dr. Gini says. Todo anything well, you have to stepaway from it and not do it for a while.