Leisure: Rest Now

Weekend Letter

Hello there, it is Friday and you probably have plans to rest, jiggy down, do laundry, or do more work. Whatever your plans are, today’s essay will do something for your weekend and the rest of your life. I hope I passed my message as clearly as possible. Please enjoy.

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EVERYTHING DOES NOT HAVE TO BE USEFUL

We live in a world that values things based on their real-use. That is, we value a thing if we can prove that it is useful. And I use ‘prove’ here as a strong word because, for a thing to be regarded as proof, it ought to surpass reasonable doubt. At least, it should be subject to little speculation and have high consensus.

However, the problem with classifying things based on their real-use is the disdain or dismissal we have towards things we can not explain their real-use cases or things that majorly serve as objects of desire. In fact, by using ‘real-use’ to qualify value, we agree that there are things that have uses that are not real. The best (or worst) part about thinking in terms of real-use is the quick mind browsing we do when we see someone doing what we deem as useless (our parents felt like this once, when we were always on our phones. Guess who’s laughing now).

In my case, I wondered why wealthy men bought paintings for exorbitant prices, wore tuxedos to Operas, and why folks bought tickets to concerts where the artiste would simply lip-sync to their song playing in the background. To me, these all felt like a waste. And it is, if you have a real-use case mindset. 

Here is something you may not like to hear: some things are just vain and useless. But here is the part you will love to hear: and that is okay. 

Over time, we try to spin real-use cases for some of these useless things. Why we do this is clear: we want to justify our ‘useless’ actions to the people who (we think) judge us. We develop arguments, talking points, and excuses to deal with the uneasy feeling of accountability. The question I have for you is this: “accountable to what?”

Now, accountability does not always look like accountability – you know, that need to spell out how you spent the money using a spreadsheet. This other accountability takes the form of trying to make your friends or parents understand why you bought that item. You want them to see reason. You don’t want them to judge you in their hearts or in your face. You probably do not want them to mock you for spending 6k to watch a fat lady shriek. You just want them to understand perfectly that this was useful. 

A scene from Friends Season 2 Episode 8 (The One With the List) perfectly represents this accountability where Chandler buys an expensive laptop. When the gang asks him what he would use the laptop for, Chandler feeling foolish said, “games and stuff.” That feeling of unease is the downside to the real-use case mindset.

Image source: Scatteredquotes (Poor Chandler Muriel Bing)

I will like to end that burden. I want to disentangle myself from the real-use case mindset. I want to be able to say “well, I bought it because I like it or because I like the feeling of having it.” Even better, I want to keep silent. I want to enjoy things without writing dissertations, citing sources, and gathering data. I wish to enjoy planting flowers because I just love how beautiful flowers are. I don’t want to justify my flower-staring habit by writing an article on how gardening helps my mental health. I just want to; that’s enough.

Hear me: we will always feel the urge to explain. Because there will always be the need to prove one thing or another in your lifetime simply because that is how human societies work. But I need you to know when you have to turn off your conscience from the subtle judgment of peers and families and not let it rob you of the unintelligible joys of life; as is the case with leisure.

Leisure: Another Kind of Work

Allow me to close with this section on what true leisure is.

The real-use mindset corrupts leisure. To the ‘productivity and real-use’ hoggers, the hustle culture elders, leisure’s real use is the rehabilitation of your mind and body for more productivity. It is why paid vacations are a bribe, retirement is a reward, and sleeping for 8 hours is a sin. But I prefer that we look at leisure without the mechanised mind of capitalism or communism.

I present Leisure in the words of my favorite philosopher Roger Scruton:

Leisure has had a bad press. For the puritan it is the source of vice; for the egalitarian a sign of privilege. The Marxist regards leisure as the unjust surplus, enjoyed by the few at the expense of the many. Nobody in a democracy is at ease with leisure, and almost every person, however little use he may have for his time, will say that he works hard for a living — curious expression, when the real thing to work for is dying.

The calumnies, however, do not apply: so argues Josef Pieper. We mistake leisure for idleness, and work for creativity. Of course, work may be creative. But only when informed by leisure. Work is the means of life; leisure the end. Without the end, work is meaningless — a means to a means to a means ... and so on forever, like Wall Street or Capitol Hill. Leisure is not the cessation of work, but work of another kind, work restored to its human meaning, as a celebration and a festival.

Roger Scruton's Introduction to Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Joseph Pieper

If you read that, you probably agree with the first line. I have seen leisure get bad press; as something that is excessive even in its moderate form, cast as a sign of privilege. But I always asked myself a question since I became an essayist: why is it that with more tools we have to maximise time and productivity, we always need more time to be productive? It feels like a rat on a wheel; a kind of Jevon’s paradox. We are not saving time, we are needing more of it. When does it end?

But I can tell you personally that I have come into a personal rest. In the words of the Bible, I have ceased from my works. But let me use Roger Scruton’s words to buttress this and close the letter. He wrote:

This is what religion teaches us, and the teaching is as important for the unbeliever as for the person of faith. We win through to leisure. “At the end of all our striving” we rejoice in our being and offer thanks. It is then, eating a meal among those we love, dancing together at a wedding, sitting side by side with people silenced by music, that we recognize our peculiar sovereign position in the world. 

Our failure to understand leisure, [Pieper makes clear], is one with our failure to understand the difference between man and the other animals. Think only of meal-times — and on this subject Pieper writes with uncommon perceptiveness. The meal, as Pieper puts it, has a ”spiritual or even a religious character”. That is to say, it is an offering, a sacrifice, and also - in the highest instance — a sacrament, something offered to us from on high, by the very Being to whom we offer it. Animals eat, but there is nothing in their lives to correspond to this experience of the ”meal”, as a celebration and endorsement of our life here on earth. When we sit down to eat, we are consciously removing ourselves from the world of work and means and industry, and facing outwards, to the kingdom of ends. Feast, festival, and faith lift us from idleness, and endow our lives with sense.

Roger Scruton's Introduction to Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Joseph Pieper

In simple terms, leisure is about enjoying the little meaningless things. Enjoy.

Watch this video to see leisure in action.

Have a leisurely weekend and a leisurely rest of your life.

Yours,

Jegdy