The adoptive parents of Idle Dee and Idle Dum choose to retain their daughter’s and son’s respective Korean names. Family names in Korea are stated first, before the given name. In this tale, we’ll discover how Dee and Dum have grown to embrace the English language meaning of their family name. Read on…
Perched on the bus stop bench, Idle Dee watched the traffic whiz by. More than a few drivers were glancing at their phones as they drove. Most passers-by were likewise staring at their screens. Only one of her seatmates was not doing the same, so Dee struck up a conversation.
Both young women commented on how “plugged-in” people were these days, constantly rushing and seemingly unable to be alone with their own thoughts. Dee shared the results of a recent survey of college students. Fifty-two percent reported feeling hopeless and 39% said they’d had a severe bout of depression the previous year. They wondered if Americans were short-changing themselves on the “down time” critical to emotional health.
As they parted, Dee’s new friend joked, “Your family name is spot on! I’m going to reserve some mental ‘idle time’ each day to refresh my soul.”
Meanwhile, Idle Dum slammed his car into park, left the engine idling, and ran into the fast food joint. He was only going in for a couple minutes; with the engine running, the AC would keep the car cool. Over the year, his car engine idled a lot. In the winter, he’d warm up his car far in advance of actually driving it and then usually leave it running between short errands. “Hey, it matches my name,” Dum grinned. “Nothing wrong with leaving the engine idling!”
What Dum didn’t realize is that modern car engines don’t need “warming up” in the winter and that it does NOT take more fuel to restart a car as compared to leaving it idle. It’s the10-second rule. If you’re going to be out of the car more than 10 seconds, turn off the engine. You’ll save money and wear and tear on your engine, and prevent unnecessary pollution from escaping the tailpipe.
We can be smarter than Dum. Foster a healthy soul by reserving some idle time each day. And foster a healthy planet by reducing engine idling. It’s a savvy combo; here, where we’re forever…Earthbound.
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