Wendy Wasserstein. Sloth. Oxford University Press, 2004.
The crying question that confronts the reader of this book is why a sloth would take the time to write it. Of course, the author has addressed the answer, but why bother? This may have to do with the popular idea of what sloth is, but why address this question directly? There is plenty of time to answer questions that no one really wants answered anyway. So . . . maybe headlines would be better.
This is the ultimate self-styled self-help book. As such, it uses humor to point to the evil behind the vice of sloth. Sloth, as a vice, is enough to make one get up and take action.
This gives rise to a couple of interesting ideas in my own mind.
Use of Humor to Reveal and Challenge Evil
Part of the problem is that we take ourselves too seriously. It is only when we gain perspective that we are able to laugh at our follibles and to recognize our evils for what they are. I like to think of Jesus as laughing when talking about the camel going through the eye of the needle. How ridiculous! But what a great way of illustrating how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Similarly, I wonder if that same ironic, sarcastic manner is what Amos is employing in Amos 5:19 when he talks about those who want to escape judgement. They meet a lion and, running away from it, encounter a bear . Then, fleeing that encounter enter the safety of their homes only to place their hands upon the mantle, the ultimate symbol of home and safety, to be bitten by a snake!! That is right. It really, really is right; that is, it is justice.
Likewise, how precious humor is as an aid to expose the small evils which masquerade themselves around us. If nothing else, humor aids us in broaching the subject by allowing us not to take ourselves, and the pretensions of others, too seriously. True enough, we often use humor as a defense mechanism, laughing at our own wounds while masking ourselves in a manner which we believe will minimize those hurts. It is a sad commentary when our “feelings” have become so precious that we do allow them to be exorcised by the use of humor, at least by the constructive use of humor. That constructive use may include the mild deconstruction that only humor is capable of as it disarms our pretensions while shielding us from total shame at the same time.
Trifling
Somewhere I missed in the book another aspect of sloth, that is, of trifling. I remember one of the ancient writers describing the devil of the noontime as having to do with the monks who spent their time visiting from cell to cell. It is not that they are not busy; the sin is that they are trifling, concerned with only trivial matters. This seems a particularly relevant sin today, especially when we think about the calorie-added nothing that accrues from the hours we spend in mindless entertainment. I believe Wesley admonished his preachers not to be engaged in trifling employment.
Maybe that is also why he reminded them they had nothing to do but save souls.
4/25/05