Though work may seem burdensome and lazing about infinitely more appealing, doing nothing ultimately leads to listlessness and uselessness. Uselessness breeds unhappiness in ourselves and those around us, while a useful life brings happiness and fulfillment. When we joyfully seek to be useful, we bring light and joy with us.
Mr. Parker runs a profitable hat shop in town. Every day he keeps busy, continually singing happily at his job.
One day, one of Parker’s rich customers, Mr. Steele, arrives. As he enters the shop, Steele comments: “Always busy and always singing at your work; you are the happiest man I know.” But Parker contradicts this statement and says that he is not the happiest man in the world.
In fact, Parker claims that he would be far happier if he could live the life of a gentleman. Parker tells Steele: “You have enough to live upon, and are not compelled to work early and late, as I am.”
A Retired Hatter
At the age of 43, Parker successfully saves up enough money to retire as a gentleman. With his new-found liberty, he overindulges and whiles away his time in excess. He listlessly watches people pass his home and goes out on walks to occupy his time.
However, Parker finds all too soon that doing nothing brings him very little joy and much irritation. He finds too much time on his hands and too few pages to read in the newspaper. In his boredom, he “sometimes, for relief ... walks out again, after tea ... and then goes to bed an hour earlier than he has been in the habit of doing. In the morning he has no motive for rising with the sun.”
He grows so irritated that he finds no pleasure in a well-cooked meal. He gets quickly irritated with his wife and criticizes her work around the house. He grows tired of all his diversions and eventually becomes a burden to himself and to others.
A year later, Parker runs into Steele, who is far happier than before. Steele informs Parker that he is happier and more content now because he has a job. He assures Parker that he finds more fulfillment in being useful to himself and others than he did in doing nothing.
Through this story, Arthur shows how, rather than living a lazy life for the sake of being lazy, we must prudently choose a life (even if it is retirement) which will be useful to others. Arthur’s story warmly echoes Charles Dickens’s words from “Our Mutual Friend”: “No one is useless in this world [...] who lightens the burden of it for any one else.”
As we try to find our place in this world, we should avoid the lazy life and seek the useful life. For, when we seek to aid others, we bring a lightness and happiness to the world which dispels the dark and the dreary.
