Hey short waivers, Emily Quang here. So it has been a year. And over here at Team Shortwave,

we are looking at 2022 as an opportunity to conserve our energy. So ahead of New Year's

resolutions, we insist that the one thing you absolutely must do before the end of the year

is to do absolutely nothing. Rest, relax, look at a bird, I dare you. And if you're still not convinced,

check out this episode from our friends at LifeKid and get inspired to be mellow. It's all about

taking things slowly and why that's a good thing to do. And that's what we're doing today. We,

as a team, are taking the day off, we'll be back Monday with more shortwave from NPR.

Deuterinos, see you in 2022.

This is NPR's LifeKid and I'm Elise Hu. And let's start this episode with a true legend.

Yeah, so I have a chinchilla named DumpTruck and he's never been productive in his life, right?

That's Devon Price, a social psychologist and the author of the book, laziness does not exist.

And of course, importantly, they're the owner to DumpTruck, the chinchilla. Like any pet,

he just sits there and in fact he's actually very destructive. He's chewed my floorboards to just

rubble. Devon doesn't believe in laziness. Their book is all about how the idea of laziness has

actually been wielded to make people feel unproductive and unworthy, which brings us back to the chinchilla.

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.

We never expect that of our pets or any animal. Right, we just let them be. They are nature,

and we are too. And so I think animals help us remember that we don't actually, or we shouldn't

have to, earn our right to exist. We're fine and beautiful and completely lovable when we're

just sitting on the couch just breathing. And if we can feel that way about animals that we love

...