Rental Person Who Does Nothing: A Memoir

I think ignoring money has allowed me to have different values, which stimulate new and different ways of relating to people.

When we do something, we tend to think about financial benefit. I think that is why new ideas so rarely take shape. If I were to make money a top priority, whatever I did would be dull.

Sometimes I’m asked to listen to someone talking about a band or an anime film they like. They say they’re not obsessive fans and don’t know that much about the subject, yet they still want someone to listen to them. When I hear them, I often wonder what, objectively, could be stopping them from talking to other people. Maybe they worry they don’t know enough for their opinions to be worth listening to, but still have an urge to say what they think.

They might ask me to join them for an activity […] and on the way they’ll start telling me about their jobs and interests and what they feel in their daily lives. Perhaps they’re worried I won’t like silence. They remind me of actors on a stage. In reality, of course, they’re just walking or driving a car, but to me they seem to be standing in a spotlight. Even when they’re describing tiny details of their lives, it’s as though they’re telling me a dramatic story. For that moment, they have the magnetism of a real actor on a real stage.

People who speak about themselves in terms of what they like are often very vague and dull. They sound as if they’re just trying to make a good impression. People who talk clearly about what they dislike tend to be more interesting, focusing more on specifics. They’re probably more honest. Maybe more sincere.

I think that when I was looking for a job, I felt exactly as I do today - that I don’t want my identity to be defined by a set of abilities. In a sense, this is at the heart of the do nothing service- I’d like the world to be one where even if people can’t do anything to society, they can still live stress-free lives. This is very important to me because of the gap that exists between the value that I sense in people and the value assigned to them by society.

If people see me as a specific character with a certain set of qualities, then they’ll be disappointed when I don’t turn out to be what they expect. So what I really want as a Rental Person is to have no defining attributes- no good points, no bad points.