Busy


Whereupon our heroine thinks about this most important word.
"Oh, that would be great - but I'm so busy."

"I feel terrible that I haven't called you back - I've been incredibly busy."

I do believe busy is the most overused, and possibly misused, word of our time. And yet, sadly underused as well - if you check the dictionary definition of the word, we almost exclusively use definitions 1 and 2. Four is occasionally used, but mostly by people describing tacky wedding dresses. And 3 is almost never used.

"Busy" is the centerpiece of most modern Americans' personal marketing campaigns. Telling someone you are busy (especially in the context of your work) instantly elevates you, especially if the person you are talking to is less busy. Busy can mean many things: I am in demand, important, productive, exhausted, giving, on the go. Its subtext to the listener is often more sinister. It can mean: you are not important, unproductive, a slacker. Every thing that the busy person is, you, in contrast, are not. Anyone with a personal life is definitely suspect: they are surely not busy enough.

The fact is, and we all know it, many of these claims of being "busy" are just so much bull. I know of several companies where the business plan is very likely, "Tell everyone how busy you are, do a lot of nothing." But it is somehow the height of rudeness to say, "Busy how? What have you been doing?"

It is a fact that some protestations of "busy" are legitimate. At certain times in our lives, we are so overloaded, so stressed, have so many demands placed on us, we really are too busy. It's at those times in my life when I hear "busy" come out of my mouth and I feel like a liar, even though I know what I am saying is in fact the truth.

Is "busy" the new "it's not you - it's me"?
Posted: Friday - February 06, 2004 at 03:25 PM         | |

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