I'd been putting off writing an About page. And then I realized: Indolence Industries is about finding out what it’s about.
Indolence is not laziness; it's closer to leisure. It’s the experience of having nothing you absolutely must do, and the chance to do whatever you want. Even nothing, if that’s what you want. For me, indolence leans on the absence of the structure of a job, school, child-rearing—though I don’t think that’s true for everyone. Indolence can be frightening, daunting and tremendously appealing, all at once. It's chaos and opportunity bound together with a sturdy, colorful ribbon and tied with a big, loose bow that dares you to pull on the knot.
​
Industry and its plural are not meant to bring visions of twentieth-century factories belching dark gray stinky smoke into the air, while crates of semiconductor capital equipment flow out the door onto trucks to be delivered to large airplanes that take them to primarily Asia (to choose a random example bearing no intended resemblance to persons living or dead). The surname of Indolence Industries represents the more general concept of production: what you do, what you create, what you make. Tangible or intangible.
Maybe industriousness would be a more precise word. But it’s too darn long. And for heaven’s sake, the plural is a soggy mess.
When indolence and industry collaborate, surprises can arise. I was rather hoping they would, when I started down this lack-of-a-path. A lifelong desk potato, a head in a jar whose body was expected to do little more than carry around the jar, I was shocked to find that in my first year of indolence, my industry took the unprecedented form of hiking, cycling, swimming and pickleball. Where did that come from? And now, as I begin my second year of indolent industry, stories are pouring out. Were they in there all along?
For me there's something to this industrious indolence: a heck of a lot of words, hours of entertainment putting them together, and relief for not having to keep them stopped up inside the jar. If you're interested in revealing one or more of your indolence industries, I'll make space for you. If you would rather see where my ind-ind takes me first, I understand.