Leisure is for performance?

The curmudgeon that I am, I complain about people a lot.  One of my complaints is rather pedestrian compared to many others.  I don't understand why people have to get all hung up on everything that they do.

Let me explain.

Back when we were kids, most people I know did the bare minimum in life.  They went to school or work. They came home.  Relaxed. Ate. Went to sleep.

Some may have did a little bit of gardening. Or whatever. But, essentially leisure was leisure. Nobody I knew was even remotely maniacal about how they spent their downtime.

I don't know how much life has changed in India.  But, here in the US, leisure is no longer leisure. There is intense commitment, a maniacal intensity, to whatever people decide that they want to pursue.

My early exposure to this was back in California.  Brewing beer at home was becoming a craze.  I practically had to run away from a couple of acquaintances if I ever ran into them at any get together, because they could go on and on about the latest in their brewing.  Then there were the bake-bread-at-home people, especially after that machine appeared in the market in the early 1990s.  Remember that?  Quilters, oh, don't get me started on them!

The age of Facebook and Instagram has made this worse.  People bike 20 miles and can't wait to post it.  Leisure activities are meticulously documented and broadcast to the world.  I won't be surprised if soon people start boasting about the awesomest sex they have, and think that they are porn stars in their bedrooms. Oh, wait, they already do!

Why do people get so maniacal, and competitive, about their hobbies and interests?  When did this "play hard" concept take over lives?  And then the condescending attitude towards those of us who don't play hard!  Why not just chill, and enjoy whatever it is that they like to do?

Why don't people stop doing stuff and simply relax?  As this writer notes, it has "morphed and migrated into pithy catchphrases like YOLO — “you only live once” — and “rise and grind.” I saw it in the way people bragged about how busy they were, as if it were a badge of honor."

That writer and I are not the only ones; there are more who think so.

If you’re a jogger, it is no longer enough to cruise around the block; you’re training for the next marathon. If you’re a painter, you are no longer passing a pleasant afternoon, just you, your watercolors and your water lilies; you are trying to land a gallery show or at least garner a respectable social media following. When your identity is linked to your hobby — you’re a yogi, a surfer, a rock climber — you’d better be good at it, or else who are you?

Insanity!  It is almost like these people go to work only to relax after their hectic pursuit of their hobbies!

The promise of our civilization, the point of all our labor and technological progress, is to free us from the struggle for survival and to make room for higher pursuits. But demanding excellence in all that we do can undermine that; it can threaten and even destroy freedom. It steals from us one of life’s greatest rewards — the simple pleasure of doing something you merely, but truly, enjoy.

YES to the simple pleasures of leisure activities.