It's time to put time on hold

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By Ann McGlynn | Thursday, October 12, 2006 11:43 PM CDT | () comments

Two friends will climb into a used boat next week and spend some time together out on the Mississippi River.

One is a professor and coach at Augustana College. Busy guy.

The other is a world-renowned author and filmmaker. Really busy guy.

Doesn’t matter. Paul Olsen, the professor, and John de Graaf, the author and filmmaker, will be out there, weather permitting, before de Graaf’s five presentations over three days in the Quad-Cities.

His work is about overwork and overconsumption in America.

“We are very stressed,” de Graaf said in a telephone interview Monday, a day after returning from a two-week vacation in Europe.

The stress is affecting our health, he said. He pointed to three recent reports.

A recent study by the University of California at Irvine links high blood pressure with long work hours, he said. The American Academy of Pediatrics is stressing the importance of play “in response to forces threatening free play and unscheduled time.”

And a May study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that Americans are significantly less healthy than their British counterparts.

It’s because the Europeans give free time its due, de Graaf said. “The whole issue with health is relationships with people. They have a lot more free time from the workplace.”

Specifically, according to the organization de Graaf coordinates, Take Back Your Time:

n American workers are putting in longer hours on the job now than in the 1950s.

n mandatory overtime is at near-record levels.

n Americans work nearly nine weeks longer per year than those in western Europe.

n we average a little more than two weeks of vacation per year, while Europeans average five to six weeks. Many people have no paid vacation at all.

The problem, he said, must be faced on a personal and policy level, de Graaf said.

That will be a battle, as it is “stepping forward with something so counter to our cultural values,” said Olsen, who teaches English at Augustana.

“It’s ironic that it’s so hard to do that we don’t even have time to try it,” Olsen said.

One night, while at a summer ecumenical retreat he helps lead in the Cascade Mountains, Olsen was peering through a telescope. “I started thinking about light years and time and our puny 70, 80, 90 years in the context of that. I asked what in the hell are we doing, caring about this stuff that is so miniscule?

“That little experiment reminded me of what’s important. Getting the dandelions out of my yard is maybe not as important as water skiing with my kids.”

The retreat, the Holden Village in Washington, is where Olson and de Graaf first met.

“One of things we do in our culture…we complain about all of the hours we work and I think we are really bragging,” Olsen said. “What we are really saying is ‘Look what I did.’”

Instead, he said, “maybe we ought to brag about how many naps we took.”

Being healthier, de Graaf said, means spending more time outdoors and exercising and away from the television and computer. It also means convincing lawmakers and employers that employees who have time for life are happier, healthier and more productive when it comes to work.

“This has big impacts on health and obesity,” de Graaf said. “It’s a complex web, but we need to think about it. We need to have national conversation about it.”

Ann McGlynn can be contacted at (563) 383-2336 or amcglynn@qctimes.com.

IF YOU GO

Author and independent filmmaker, John de Graaf will be in the Quad-Cities next week. His schedule is:

Thursday, Oct. 19

10:30 a.m.: Augustana College’s Olin Auditorium. The community convocation will be an examination of the different choices the United States and the European Union have made in terms of economic priorities, employment conditions, and health issues from 1970-2000.

6 p.m.: St. Ambrose University, O’Keefe Library. Interactive lecture and question-answer session for screenwriters and filmmakers on documentary filmmaking.

Friday, Oct. 20

7 p.m.: Genesis Heart Institute, 1236 E. Rusholme St., Davenport. Interactive lecture and question-answer session about Take Back Your Time.

Saturday, Oct. 21

2 p.m.: Moline Public Library, 3210 41st St. Interactive lecture and question-answer session on Affluenza: The All Consuming Epidemic.

7 p.m.: Putnam Museum, 1717 W. 12th St., Davenport. Screening of On Nature’s Terms, a new documentary promoting the protection of predators and their ecosystems with discussion and a question-answer session.

TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY

10 quick things to do on Take Back Your Time Day on Oct. 24.

Sleep late.

Visit an elderly relative.

Cut out one activity from your child’s schedule

Learn to meditate.

Go for a long walk.

Host a brown bag lunch discussion about taking back time in your workplace, school or college.

Have a family potluck at your church.

Give your employees a day, or afternoon, off.

Plant a tree.

Turn off the television.

Source: www.timeday.org