Recreation

Next to my desk chair I keep a green canvas Eddie Bauer case.  It once served as my briefcase during my working years, toted from car to office most days, rarely used.  In retirement, it has been repurposed, still infrequently used.  I call it my Recreation Case.  It contains a leather portfolio, a cheap cardboard folder with loose-leaf papers, and various things that make marks on papers.  These include colored pencils and a calligraphy kit in the main case, with pastels and a watercolor tin in the subordinate compartment, along with a tape recorder that does not reliably allow the microcassettes to function.  I have other sources of recreation, including two harmonicas with an instruction manual for beginners.  My living room contains fishing rods, with two kept in the trunk of my car.  That trunk also holds a good putter and driver, along with some golf balls.  I keep the yard sale complete set of clubs in the garage, along with some functional bicycles.  In a corner of my bedroom lies a once restored violin that could use a new bow.  I have a variety of cameras, used primarily for travel, and like many others, made subordinate to my ever present picture-taking capacity of a smartphone.  My living room grows herbs as do pots by my front door.  Vegetables and a few flowers grow in my backyard.  All of these would classify as personal recreation, though none vigorously or even reliably pursued.  Instead, I seem more drawn to my kitchen, the challenges of preparing special event dinners.  I also engage in various forms of personal expression, now mostly on my computer, with writing and a weekly YouTube recording serving partly a recreational need but also a means of keeping my mind agile when the mental challenges of my career have been set aside.

Recreation serves many purposes, which may be why it takes so many forms.  People have needs to escape from their rat races.  Many have a means of keeping score, such as golf or tennis.  Many have tangible production whether my elegant dinners planned and executed over two weeks or vegetables harvested towards the end of each summer.  Some people immerse, creating expertise.  I tend to dabble, maybe even flit.

While hobbies are often pursued alone, as I tend to do, there are also direct and indirect creations of community.  Cyclists ride together, musicians play in ensembles, golfers create foursomes.  Even solitary pursuits can immerse with similar enthusiasts who have made FoodTV or Cooking Channel widely watched or get tips on fishing from sources that support anglers, art instruction via classes or media.  All function alone when engaged in these hobbies, but all know that people unknown to them share their interests.

And all have the opportunity to excel, even though few do.  Some people make a living as artists, musicians, athletes, and photographers.  Acquisition of skill really has no upper limit.  Irrespective of proficiency obtained, the endpoint usually seems to be some combination of joy, thrill, or accomplishment.  What people do with time that is not externally imposed upon them frames how they prioritize themselves.