Laiskvorst: Lazy Sausage (or a Person) - Estonian
The evaluation of laziness and how a person's worth should be assessed
Etymology: Laisk (lazy) + vorst (sausage)
Laziness is a subjective concept. Exactly. The result and accuracy of the assessment depend on what a person understands by being lazy and what they target. Even the word laziness itself is controversial. It is used as a tool of insult, exclusion, and deterrence.
Dr. Devon Price, an academic in the field of psychology, has published the book Laziness Does Not Exist as an extensive study after his essay, which has been an all-time favorite on Medium. He has studied what laziness is and reached different conclusions than we are used to hearing. This study reminds us how harmful the so-called side hustle, the culture of utilizing every waking second by working, producing, or "doing something," is.
The work that led him to Laziness Does Not Exist begins with Price reflecting on his pet chinchilla, Dumptruck. Dumpstruck is precious to him only because he loves it, not because it performs many tasks for him.
"I would never look at him and think of his life in terms of has he justified his right to exist? He's not paying rent. He's not performing any service. And it would be absurd to even think about his life in those terms," he says.
Price also says that so-called laziness can indicate other conditions, such as AHDH, or some other reasons causing the person’s need to slow down.
Thinking about laziness and productivity leads us to other and deeper areas, and perhaps deviating from the path is acceptable. The compelling question is:
Can a person's worth be measured by the work they do?
Of course, the first response you and I offer when asked this question is not our genuine thoughts. When our true thoughts emerge, they collide with the barriers of moral truths and societal judgments, and our ego, which does not want to be a person who answers "yes" to such a question, responds "of course not."
But what if no one could hear our answer? I'm afraid, and to be honest, most of us would say yes. Because the value of people in the world is determined by their labor and the money they earn, this is a worldwide assumption, which means that the vast majority of people spend their lives under the idea that work determines their value.
They live and make decisions with the expectation that their employment and the money they earn would raise their worth. They also evaluate other people similarly, choose their friends, their spouse, and the people they bring into their lives accordingly, and welcome the strong while rejecting the weak, as if by natural selection.
When I decided to leave my position as a manager at a large corporation, I was bombarded with this question. Everyone questioned me, asking, "Are you sure?" "You have a high status and respected job, a career, and good earnings," was the real query behind this one-word question. “These things empower you. Are you certain it's worth it to give these up and risk your value?"
But, while I was saying no to the corporate world, I was also quietly rejecting the notion that my worth was assessed by the high social acceptance of my profession. My true worth is not derived from the work I do. I am a decent person. I aim to follow universal values and virtues  without question, to be honest, to love people, and to respect the nature of which I am a part. I aim to be objective, to be a better person, and to improve whatever I do for myself and for all of us. Is what I do for a job more important than all of this to other people? I refuse to believe that with all of my essence and humanity.
Worth, a film I saw last week, raises similar concerns. I have to admit that I chose the film because it starred Michael Keaton (I became a fan of Keaton after Birdman and Spotlight), but after watching it, the subject matter also convinced me that it was a worthwhile watch. The film is about the process of compensating the families or relatives of those who died in the 9/11 attacks. How should the payment for each individual be calculated? How should this be discussed with these people's families? What is a human being's worth? These are the thoughts of both the characters and the audience throughout the film. I recommend it to those who haven't seen it.
I wish everyone a nice, humane weekend where everyone has the right to be lazy.
Till next week,
— Gulsun
Thank you for taking the time to accompany me in the story of a new word. Every word of the world’s languages is also ours, belonging to humanity while giving us an essence of the culture in which it was rooted.
We are made of stories—that is, of words.