A Short Case for Slack

When I was an undergraduate, I went to the absolute middle of nowhere in the Pacific with a professor and a handful of grad students.

It was a whirlwind. Beyond smiles and gestures, there was zero language overlap. I was living directly with a family and had no private space and almost not private time. My brain was in over drive. Learning the language. Trying to discern what was socially appropriate. Identifying & attempting to rectify my multitude of mistakes… like the time that I announced to the kava-happy men of the village that I drink penis. Honest mistake. Albeit a funny one.

And so I was incredibly confused when, everyday, the professor would ask us: who had time to daydream yesterday?

Are you kidding me?!?! I was struggling to live, communicate, work, not offend everyone! I didn’t have time to daydream.

And that was her whole point.

She wanted to know who was able to create the space, the psychological slack, that would enable us to be successful, not today, but next week, next month, 4 months from then — in the long term.

She had seen way too many people burn out in ethnographic settings. Because everything is new and everything is hard and if you don’t find space, you can drown in it all.

Whenever I get that overwhelmed feeling, I try to ask myself, ‘Did you have time to daydream today?’

And if not, I know I need to make some time, ASAP.