Meetings as Pastime?

"Besides, the pace of all discussions was immeasurably slow. ... From a European point of view such meetings wasted hours of time and were maddeningly long-winded, but to the Kikuyu they were a form of pleasure, like a game of chess, or watching a cricket match." -Elspeth Huxley, The Mottled Lizard.

This is certainly a different attitude about meetings! I am recalling my years in corporate life, where meetings were seldom well run, mostly tolerated, often used as a way to kill time on the company clock, and an endless source of black humor for employees. Could we instead regard meetings as a form of entertainment?

Not likely! Life back in California is frenetic, distracted, and impatient. We Americans seem to have much difficulty in enjoying our material comfort and abundance. Is this trajectory of restlessness the consequence of our legacy as a nation of immigrants, forever heading out to the frontier? -Earl