Leisure is one of those words that modernity has terribly corrupted and misused. When most people hear it we think of lounging around doing nothing. We think of any activity absent of activity, as an opportunity to completely shut down. And this is a tremendous perversion of a sacred notion.
In Greek, leisure is a word that means school. Leisure historically meant freedom for intellectual or creative pursuits. It wasn’t about simply killing time or distracting the mind. It was engaging in a pursuit that both challenges us and relaxes us. While leisure isn’t work, it is something we have to work to make time for.
Seneca pointed out how readily we take risks with uncertain payoffs in our career, but we’re afraid to risk even one minute of our time for leisure. We think our work will suffer if we step away from it. We feel guilty about being idle. We wonder if we’re being reckless for pursuing something that has no purpose. And while those are fair concerns, they missed the potential upside that we can get from that time.
In Montaigne’s final essay of experience about his lifelong curiosity of how to live his life, he talks about these types of concerns. After spending some time listing the qualities of great minds that are guided him, Montaigne writes, “the truly wise must be as intelligent and expert in the use of natural pleasures, as in all the other functions of life. So the sages live gently yielding to the laws of our human lot, relaxation and versatility, it seems, go best with a strong and noble mind and do it singular honor. There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time when he was an old man to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.”
“Socrates,” Montaigne continues, “endured unfathomable hardships throughout his life. Hunger, poverty, the indocility of his children, the nails of his wife, calumny, tyranny, imprisonment, fetters in poison. And yet, he never refused to play, nor to ride the hobbyhorse with children. And it became him well, for all actions, says philosophy, equally become an equally honor a wise man.”
There is nothing to feel guilty about for making time for leisure and stillness. It’s not reckless, it’s nourishing. It’s replenishing. It’s joy, and it’s admirable. “It’s in leisure,” the Roman poet Ovid said, “that we reveal what kind of people we are.”
Struggling with learning a new language, assembling a puzzle slowly yet patiently, catching your breath to run another sprint, working through the thoughts you want to write out with clarity or walking on the beach with a metal detector. Whatever it is, make the time, let it relax and strengthen you and fulfill you. You deserve it. And you need it.
