Thinking about leisure

It’s summer and many of us have thoughts about vacations and so-called down time. What do these things mean for your spiritual practice?

Knowing that I was about to launch into a 12-day bike tour, someone suggested I write about leisure and Christian spirituality. Someone else suggested that 12 days on a bike saddle would certainly not be leisure. Yet another person rather strongly suggested that riding my bike for nearly two weeks was a waste of time. I even received some scriptural proof-texting about “to whom much has been given, much is expected.” Clearly the implication was that this type of leisure, or maybe any leisure, was not in keeping with Christian discipleship.

No point arguing with that point of view. I won’t bother mentioning that some of the hours spent in repetitive pedalling are even prayerful. I also play games as I ride, waving my arms like an airplane, counting the different bird species I hear along the way, saying “howdy!” to every person going the opposite direction. To be honest, there’s maybe too much time with my own thoughts.

Once upon a time, I used to teach in a university-level recreation and leisure studies program. Leisure is surprisingly complicated. Frankly, I think everybody needs to learn to play; somehow as we mature we lose the innate playfulness of our early years. In fact, one notion of human nature is that of homo ludens—the playing ones. That beats thinking we are the wise ones (homo sapiens), despite the lack of supporting evidence.

One concept of leisure is to frame it in contrast to work, specifically including both paid and unpaid work. That acknowledges the gendering of both work and leisure, since domestic labour is usually undervalued or not valued at all. Still, this way of thinking does not define leisure by what it is, but by what it is not.

Leisure can also be conceptualized as activities, which is equally problematic. Early in my married life I learned that my wife did not consider going to the playground with our little children as leisure, like I did. For her, it was yet another extension of care-giving and domestic labour.

This example shows that “leisure” has meanings that differ among people. Is going to church or volunteering for community groups leisure?

Other conceptualizations of leisure relate to joy, pleasure or other emotions, or how the activities and feelings may become part of our self-understandings. We probably all know people who could learn a thing or two about playing.

In a Christian context, leisure is often framed in the context of the creation story and the Sabbath: “On the seventh day God rested.” This has been used to legitimize a day of rest (good), and legalistically regulate the activities of the day (not so good). In fact, leisure has often become labelled as sinful in that framework.

In a capitalist context, leisure and vacations have been justified as beneficial for the increased productivity of workers. Leisure/Sabbath/holidays/vacation are fundamental to recuperation/rest/recovery so that workers can perform better when they return. Zoinks!

Most definitely, I do not want to frame what we humans do in terms of productive or non-productive. These conceptualizations point to the need to reflect also on the nature of the human being. Could there be something about play, recreation and leisure that is fundamental to our human nature? Ponder that this summer, but do so leisurely, of course.

Randy Haluza-DeLay lives in Toronto and can be reached at haluzadelay@gmail.com.