IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

Being "Busy" is so 2007.

I woke up this morning with 50 matrillion things on my mind as always. I thought about all of the things I have to do today; the work i need to get done, the people whose calls I have to return, what I want to eat, the meaning of life, etc.

My mind settled on a conversation I had with a friend a couple of weeks ago about how tired I am of hearing people talk about how "busy" they are, and how tired I am myself of telling people how "busy" I am.

It's seems that as of late, and maybe it's just my peer/age group, everyone I talk to loves to mention how "busy" they are. I mean, it kinda makes sense that post-graduate twenty-somethings and early thirty-somethings are fervently chasing their dreams and goals, it's just the constant mention of "being busy" that is played out.

Therefore, may this serve as my official petition to outlaw the mention of how "busy" you've been in casual conversation.

What I concluded was that the constant mention of "being busy" serves many purposes:

-A defense mechanism/deflector: Either you're not really doing much and this is a way to divert any further inquiry into your "business" from whoever you're speaking too, or you just don't feel like going into detail at the time about what you have or haven't been doing. Real small-talkish.

-A gateway to bragging: You say "I've been so busy man..." followed by all of the awesome things you've been doing. Hearing yourself say out loud all of the things you're doing and talking about how busy you've been may boost your self-esteem momentarily. This is that self-validating "I've been busy" This is very common. This response is often given even when the question is "how have you been/how are you doing?" rather than "what have you been up to?" If I ask "how are you/how have you been?" I want to hear "fine," "good," "ok," "not so great," or "fantastic!" not everything that you've been doing...unless I specifically ask. Let's hear how you feel, or what's on your mind, rather than what you've been doing. I'm not interested in blackberry-ish/iphone-ish conversation.

-An excuse for not hitting someone back: This pertains to friends, family, business, and that girl/dude you're trying to holler at. You just don't have enough time!... However, this application of mentioning"being busy" is total bull$#!+. You're not too busy to hit up your mom, or get back with that person who's trying to get a meeting with you, and that girl/guy you're calling isn't too busy to return your texts and calls. People make time for what they deem important. You don't have time to call your mom, but you stay on the phone with that girl (or those girls.) You've been too busy for that meeting, but you have time for somebody's meeting. And that girl you're chasing is gonna keep hitting you with the "I'm sorry, I've just so been busy," but let's be real, she's returning somebody's text and calls, just not yours. The whole beginning of trying to "holler" at someone is convincing him or her that you're someone they should make time for.

Now, I have been both victim and culprit to each and every one of these scenarios, but I'm just so very over it. I'm just bored both of telling people how busy I am and hearing how busy they are. I'm for real. So let this serve as an official petition to outlaw talking about being "busy" in '08 and beyond. Also outlawed are the phrases "grinding," "on my grind," "workin' hard," "hustlin,'" "gettin' money," or any variation of the above... BORING!!!

Your response will be greatly appreciated, and will serve as an official signature for this petition...

Unless you're just too busy.

You love,

Mitchell, a Martian
Kent, Parker, Wayne, Banner, & Martin, Inc.

pieces.

*Please pray for the earthquake victims in China
*Please Vote Janelle Monáe for the NewNowNext award on www.arjanwrites.com
*Please listen to Funkadelic's "Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts" It's over 12 minutes long, but find it and listen to it. Besides it being one of my favorite songs, It keeps coming up on my shuffle (out of thousands of songs) so I figured that meant something.