I often receive reactions of surprise when I point out that I don’t have time to accept invitations to meetings, to get something done or to answer your e-mails. But I am really extremely busy. To counter the incredulous astonishment that regularly meets this assertion, I have filmed a typical segment of a typical work day:

“But that’s not work!” I hear those of you exclaim who cling to views formed during the time of Manchester capitalism or the New Economic Policy in the Soviet Union. That is open to debate, for why should reading and thinking not count as work (let alone the rather demanding activity at 3:20 in the video)? But today, I am not in the mood to argue and thus reply: “So what? Then I am busy with something else than work. Does that mean it’s less important? I hardly think so!” Quite the contrary; it seems to me that a life in which there aren’t a few hours every day for situations and activities like I display them in this video is not very different from that of a robot or a serf.

Think about it! Or continue to enjoy life at the office or in front of your computer for the next 30 years.

After the camera was turned off, a roebuck came by. It stood still in front of me and looked at me with astonished eyes from a distance of about 10 meters. I smiled at it, cigar still in my mouth. The animal came a bit closer and continued to observe me without shyness or fear, while it walked around me in a semi-circle. The deer seemed very surprised to encounter a human who is not running, walking, talking, shouting or shooting, but who simply sits there and enjoys life.

(Filmed in a forest not too far from my apartment in Targu Mures in Romania. – Zur deutschen Fassung.)