All Work and No Play Makes a Dull Life
Imagine a world without leisure and enjoyment! We would all be drudges and consequently would be no better than animals. I can only imagine people with bowed shoulders and lowered eyes, people who have no light in their eyes and no hope in their world. As it is. things are pretty had. People are always busy – busy with work and busy with idleness. No – No. I’m not trying to be witty but people are busy with nothing to do because they do not know how to make use of their leisure. But of that later, for the time being let me stick to the point – all work and no play would he a monotonous existence.
Man has always been busy with the effort of fulfilling his needs. In the early stages man spent his time hunting and then ploughing. but these activities did not fill up his whole day. Today man is busy keeping up with the Joneses. he is the company of his kind in the rat race that he runs. It is no longer a question of survival but a question of acquisition – acquiring more worldly goods, having more money to hoard and to spend. Most of us do not feel happy when there is nothing to do. Those who are able to enjoy what they do and those who are able to do what they enjoy are indeed very lucky.
But even these people need a change. A person who is doing an office job or busy with books welcomes a walk in the evening, half an hour in the garden, a drink with a friend. And a person who has been working in a factory or in a field would definitely enjoy a visit to a restaurant, an hour to go through the newspaper. watch television. It is not only the nature of one’s work which conditions one’s choice of recreative activity; intellectual and cultural development is also an important factor. Those people who do not know how to enjoy their leisure and do not allow themselves to recoup lose their efficiency.
No one can continue at the same rate of efficiency over an indefinite period. Just as the body needs sleep, the mind needs rest and change. That is why the hobbies which one cultivates and the activities which keep one busy are referred to as recreative; they help to recreate something which has been spent and utilized. People who only know about their work and are perpetually engrossed in it do not recreate that part of themselves which is spent. Thus they either break down under the strain or merely tag along automatically.
They make very poor conversationalists and do not have well-integrated personalities. Over the years they lose their mental alertness and become confined to the narrow limits of their jobs. This is not to decry hard work. Work is necessary and only those who work hard are able to achieve something. But at the same time one must know how to relax no matter for how short a period. Relaxation does not mean only sleeping or idling; it also means finding something satisfying and meaningful to do. Otherwise life becomes monotonous and dull.
