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Should.
What a dumb word. Especially when used in reference to leisure time.
I should read a book.
I should go for a bike ride.
I should see a museum.
I should be out in the sun.
I shouldn't watch TV.
I shouldn't bum around in my pajamas.
I shouldn't play computer games.
I shouldn't curl up with a bag of cheetos and 400 comic books.
It's leisure time folks, there's no should about it. Americans spend all day every day doing what they should do. Many of us choose to be students and thus choose to have mandatory intellectual pursuits all day every day. Why should we force ourselves to stretch our brains even further when all the work is done? I joke about how being in my grad school is like non-stop therapy, but I'm only half joking. My field is all about self-awareness. I spend so much time enricching myself and as nice as it is, as useful as it is (it helped me unearth the 6 year depression and get treated) it is also an energy drain. When I'm not working on me or working on learning more about my field, I don't want to forgo fun to enrich myself some more.
This is not to say that I never do things for fun that happend to be enriching. Sometimes I read, and while some of what I read is Pratchett and thus very silly, some of it (Speaker for the Dead comes to mind) is heavy intellectual stuff. But all of it is stuff I actively enjoy reading. If I can bear to put the book down, it isn't worth my time. So it is all fiction, mostly sci-fi or fantasy. I don't read history books or encyclopedias in my spare time cause they're not fun. Sometimes I go to museums. Over spring break I went to the art museum. I went to look at pretty paintings. I did not go to have an education experience. I only bothered to look at the stuff I knew I'd like, even though that meant I looked mostly at paintings by dead white guys. Yeah I didn't see the special display of african art or anything, but I wasn't there for that. I was there to see pretty pictures. As far as exercise is concerned, I won't do any kind of workout that I can't enjoy. This confines me to swimming, stretching, walking, and perhaps if they run it again this year I will take yoga at the Y. I don't care if weightlifting is good for me, it is BORING. Same for aerobics classes. I figure I have more to gain by caring for myself in an enjoyable way than I do from trying to force myself to do things I hate "for my own good." I do in fact go out in the sunshine (see this summer's beach and waterpark obsession), but some days I just want to be at home in a sweatsuit at my computer, and I feel no guilt for that. Especially not if I spent the morning and afternoon on site counseling kids, or in class. I feel no guilt about enjoying Everquest, or bad 80's movies, or any other less prestigious activities because it is MY TIME.
If there's one thing I can't stand it is people telling me that I am wasting myself because I don't use every minute of my life to enrich myself as a human being. I do quite enough enriching at school and work. Free time is, imnsho, meant for fun. Unless I actually ENJOY an intellectual activity, I won't waste my free time on it. I think using your free time to prove to yourself and the world how enlightened you are is the true waste. It all comes down to pointless ego stroking when you could be out partying.
What a dumb word. Especially when used in reference to leisure time.
I should read a book.
I should go for a bike ride.
I should see a museum.
I should be out in the sun.
I shouldn't watch TV.
I shouldn't bum around in my pajamas.
I shouldn't play computer games.
I shouldn't curl up with a bag of cheetos and 400 comic books.
It's leisure time folks, there's no should about it. Americans spend all day every day doing what they should do. Many of us choose to be students and thus choose to have mandatory intellectual pursuits all day every day. Why should we force ourselves to stretch our brains even further when all the work is done? I joke about how being in my grad school is like non-stop therapy, but I'm only half joking. My field is all about self-awareness. I spend so much time enricching myself and as nice as it is, as useful as it is (it helped me unearth the 6 year depression and get treated) it is also an energy drain. When I'm not working on me or working on learning more about my field, I don't want to forgo fun to enrich myself some more.
This is not to say that I never do things for fun that happend to be enriching. Sometimes I read, and while some of what I read is Pratchett and thus very silly, some of it (Speaker for the Dead comes to mind) is heavy intellectual stuff. But all of it is stuff I actively enjoy reading. If I can bear to put the book down, it isn't worth my time. So it is all fiction, mostly sci-fi or fantasy. I don't read history books or encyclopedias in my spare time cause they're not fun. Sometimes I go to museums. Over spring break I went to the art museum. I went to look at pretty paintings. I did not go to have an education experience. I only bothered to look at the stuff I knew I'd like, even though that meant I looked mostly at paintings by dead white guys. Yeah I didn't see the special display of african art or anything, but I wasn't there for that. I was there to see pretty pictures. As far as exercise is concerned, I won't do any kind of workout that I can't enjoy. This confines me to swimming, stretching, walking, and perhaps if they run it again this year I will take yoga at the Y. I don't care if weightlifting is good for me, it is BORING. Same for aerobics classes. I figure I have more to gain by caring for myself in an enjoyable way than I do from trying to force myself to do things I hate "for my own good." I do in fact go out in the sunshine (see this summer's beach and waterpark obsession), but some days I just want to be at home in a sweatsuit at my computer, and I feel no guilt for that. Especially not if I spent the morning and afternoon on site counseling kids, or in class. I feel no guilt about enjoying Everquest, or bad 80's movies, or any other less prestigious activities because it is MY TIME.
If there's one thing I can't stand it is people telling me that I am wasting myself because I don't use every minute of my life to enrich myself as a human being. I do quite enough enriching at school and work. Free time is, imnsho, meant for fun. Unless I actually ENJOY an intellectual activity, I won't waste my free time on it. I think using your free time to prove to yourself and the world how enlightened you are is the true waste. It all comes down to pointless ego stroking when you could be out partying.
