o. CHAPLAIN rS PAGE
Let us begin , with a resounding
platitude0 Among the gifts of God to .
us must be counted time itself.. Like
any gift or any thing, this one may
be either used or misused*
' Of course it is true that most of
jjrie time at the disposal of any inde
vidual is not at his disposal,
whether' we like it or not there are
so many chores that must be performed
in any twenty—four hours. We must eat
we must wash and clothe and generally
tend to these corruptible bodies of
ours, we must attend to varied obli
gations, we must (regrettably) work,
and (less regrettably) contribute a
surprising number of hours each day .
\ to the little death that is sleep.
Yet, even so, there will yet be, for
the majority of people, a certain
residue to time after all the chores,
and this temporal space will more or
less lie at the disposal of each
individualo
The sincere person has, therefore,
a problem of sorts in the whole mat
ter of his leisure. Moreover, we must
suppose the problem to be grown more
acute in an age when technology lias
evidently. provided people with in
creased leisure. We of this genera
tion do owe a certain debt to tele
vision.. It revealed to us just how
much free time we had on our hands.
We can say that free time will be
profitable in a wholesome way if two
conditions are fulfilled. First, the
t normal human being is rarely happier
I than when he is doing something that
is constructive or productive or
k creative* Such a requirement will
. seem at first sight prohibitive, yet
it is not sc. No doubt every person
.is not equipped to install his own
air-conditioning or write an epic in
blank verse or construct a model of
the Leaning Tower with matchsticks.
Yet it is astonishing how skillful
an ordinary person may become when
he starts to pursue a constructive
hobby, and it is positively astcund
Gontinued next column
mg how much relish end satisfaction
and peace of mind he will drive from
his pursuit* There are times and cir
comstances in which it is incalculably
more important to paint a picture than
to paint a great picture.
Let us not fail to number among
really constructive occupations the
reading of a good book. The fear that
television would utterly corrupt the
reading habits of our natioix .is now
largely dissipated, thanks to televi
sion itselfo
The second mark of wholesome lei
sure activity is that it be enjoyable.
This matter is not as simple and
straightforward as it appears. Any
number of people engage in activities
represent the current notion of plea
sure, With kind of bemused innocence
Smith consistently and in the name of
recreation does things which he doesn
’t enjoy in the least, only because
Jones either enjoys these things or
claims that he does,
A tired man reads a detective story
or a Western because it is popularly
supposed thao tired people should
road whodunits and gunplayets, despite
the fact that the man doesn’t really
enjoy such nonsense at all and really
would enjoy a solid biography,' We sit
for hours in front of a television
set suffering our intelligence, such
as it is to be insulted and our nerv
ous system to be lacerated and our
emotions to be seduced, not because
we are enjoying one moment of the
whole absurd procedure, but because
everyone relaxes (?) nowadays in.
front of the lighted screen.
The point is that so much valuable
time is wantonly wasted because the
individual, in all innocence and in
deed in a kind of hypnosis, never does
do what he, personally, would positive
ly enjoy, but tosses away 'his free
time doing what everyone else says
positively he must enjoy. Let us for
bid no man his evening of television,
his morning of "happy hiking," or his
day of hunting; but please indulge
_ Continued P399 ~'-L ._