I've gone through several periods of idleness in my life, none of them by choice.  I've gone through periods of a month or two with literally nothing to do, being stuck in a city where I knew nobody at all and had no money at all to go to the places where I could meet people.  I knew that I wouldn't be around long enough to get a job or get to know anyone well, and I was pretty much stuck in one spot.  Those periods have been the most difficult of my life, for those have been the times when I've had the least to do and I've been the least constructive.  I've wanted to do something, but I haven't had the resources to get anything done, so I've been kind of stuck, feeling pretty hopeless and useless.

Sociologists find that these feelings are very common among people who are in areas that have very poor economies, where there are high levels of unemployment, or where the jobs are completely unskilled and very repetitious.  When I lived in Spain, in an area of almost 20% unemployment, I saw an awful lot of people--especially young men--hanging around, doing nothing.  They had no work, and worse, no hope of finding work.  They felt hopeless; they felt useless.  And they mostly hung around in bars, spending the very little money they had on wine or beer, watching television with their friends.  I felt somewhat bad being there, especially since I was a foreigner in their country and I had work, but that was life--I had a skill that they didn't have, and there was no way that they could have done the job I was doing (teaching English).

Even worse, many people with nothing to do become seriously depressed--they have far too much time to be introspective, far too much time to dwell on their situations and let the feelings grow and feed upon themselves until they become dark and overpowering.

Why is crime much more predominant in such areas?  How about feelings of hopelessness?  How about the lack of constructive activity?  How about feelings of being abandoned or shunned or ignored by the very society that claims to care for its citizens?

I suppose that the point here is that we have to try to understand where people in this situation are coming from, so that we don't judge them too harshly.  Some choose their course, and don't want to have anything to do, but others aren't so fortunate, and they're where they're at through no choice of their own.  If we want to make a serious dent in the levels of crime in our country, in the number of people who suffer from serious depression, we need to find ways to give people something constructive to do.  We need to give them a chance to be contributing members of society, to find that sense of accomplishment.  This won't be a cure-all, but it will certainly help things.

You see, people who are in these situations can't be living life fully, usually through no fault of their own.  They don't determine how the economy moves, and they don't determine which employers move into their towns.  If we can do anything for the world, we can help people find their gifts, develop their gifts, and actually use their gifts for constructive purposes.  Over and over, I see and read that such people are the ones who get the most out of life, and who help others to do the same.