Under Thirt\' Page
THE USE OF LEISURE -I
By F. J. ERROLL
[The writer, a Cambridge graduate, aged 23, is an engineer] IT was a remarkable feature of the original Under Thirty series that so little importance was attached to the correct use of leisure. The authors stressed the importance of thinking out a standard of moral values, or of performing some social service ; alternatively, indulgence in a warm bath of self-pity was put forward as the only possible creed.
None of the writers, however, stated whether their ideas were to be put into practice in their own time or their employers'. To such of us as find ourselves in business after the spacious days of the University, it is difficult to see our lives as a whole, for the two totally different environments make our working- day life very different from our leisure life. By day, we are creatures of small intelligence and no experience, at the best willing enough to learn the scope and limitations of a business career. In the evening we naturally turn to those occupations which we most enjoy, and which do not reproduce the office atmosphere of subordination. It is not surprising that so few University men join one of the Reserve Forces, for they rightly feel that having been ordered about during the day, they are entitled to be masters of their own spare time. I am not complaining about office life, for it is obvious that, as young men, we must learn to fit ourselves into a smoothly-running system before we can hope to be in a position of control. But the danger of too much discipline in working hours is that it probably means too little discipline out of working hours—too little of the hardest mental control, self-discipline applied to one's leisure.
It is so easy, and apparently so desirable to say that one will do as one wants to do with one's own time, that it is worth while looking for a moment at the lives of those who have made this doctrine their creed. In one family of my acquaintance, the husband returns each evening to cat his dinner in silence, retiring immediately after to read a book in his study. In his wife and two grown-up daughters he appears to take no interest. On Saturdays and Sundays he begins his reading after breakfast. The parents of another family divide all their time between golf and bridge : golf when the weather is fine, bridge at the Club when it is not.
Mr. X. is the father of three children, and retired some time ago, in order to " enjoy his leisure." He has tired of his former hobby of playing with the wireless, and is now reduced to cataloguing the books in the family library. Having no taste for literature he has no intention of reading them.
If these people ever gave the matter a thought, they would, I am sure, declare that they were happy enough with the way they had arranged their lives. Yet I myself am appalled by the prospect of cataloguing books at fifty, of playing a per- petual round of golf at sixty, and it seems to me that these people have reached this state through their having made no attempt to do anything better with their leisure time than spend it in the easiest possible manner.
Turning to friends my own age, who might easily be the children of the parents described above, I see the same purposeless activities in embryo. One Cambridge graduate told me that he often spends an evening doing his accounts. He derives considerable pleasure in knowing that on November 15th he spent 4d. on 'bus fares, is. on cigarettes, and is. 3d. for a cinema seat, a total of 2s. 7d.
Another young man is a member of three amateur dramatic societies, not because he is good at acting, but because he does not know how to occupy his time when he is not rehearsing. Membership of three societies ensures that he shall never be without a part. This man is at least doing something, which, I suppose, is preferable to a friend who, on being asked how he had occupied the previous evening, replied that as he had seen all the films that were being shown at the local cinemas, he had gone to bed—at half past eight ! Surely the root of the trouble is to be found in the failure of parents to set an example to their children of usefully occupied leisure. When we were children they took great care to see that we had many things to play with—dolls and miniature cooking stoves for the girls, boxes of bricks and Meccano for the boys—for play was rightly regarded as an essential part of a child's life, so parents and relatives rightly provided the means of playing by generous giving on birthdays and at Christmas. As these occupations of the nursery were left behind we may have been introduced to philately by a kind aunt presenting us with an album and a packet of stamps. At that stage it was probable that the direct assistance of our elders ceased, and we were left to arrange our own affairs with the aid of a bicycle and the neighbours' children.
Thus it continued into manhood, until bicycles were replaced by motor-cars, and friends' houses by public houses. Only a few among us, I venture to say, find real satisfaction in their spare time pursuits. It is so easy to drift into the frame of mind that waits for something to turn up, that thinks of the nearest picture-house when nothing more exciting offers, or that remembers the golf-clubs from force of habit rather than from desire.
It is amusing to laugh rather condescendingly at other people's attempts to enjoy their leisure, but such laughter has little value once it has shown how aimless is one's own leisure. It disturbs me to find that I have spent an evening reading a book, whose title, even, I shall be unable to remember in two or three months. It disturbs me more to see the relics of forgotten hobbies, the cigarette card albums, the photographs, and the books that were bought, but not read.
It is inspiring therefore to turn to a man of my acquaint- ance, of about the same age as myself, who has produced a positive plan for leisure. He has seen only too clearly the difficulties I have tried to outline and deserves all success in his attempt to overcome them. Not everyone will agree with his choice of interests, but it is at least a serious attempt to make a positive use of leisure. First, he proposes to undertake the cultivation of close friends. Though he will in no circumstances attempt to force the development of a friendship, he sees that a friendship often fails to mature through the casualness of the would-be friends towards each other. A display of sympathy truly felt can often overcome a mutual shyness. Recognising that one of the chief joys of marriage is the companionship that it brings, he is also setting out to understand the opposite sex, so that he may hope to live happily with a future wife.
Next in importance is the mood of play, which might be described as the giving of a rest to one's normal personality. A cinema, a theatre, a novel, or, sometimes, a lively party can give this.
The needs of the body must also be remembered : for- tunately games provide both exercise and social contacts. Time must be allowed for contemplation. Quiet thinking is necessary, both concerning one's career and the moral attitude to one's environment. Many problems of conduct arise, and, in his opinion, time is well spent in thinking them over, drawing where necessary on one's growing store of experience.
Two adult hobbies are to fill the remainder of this man's leisure : a form of social service upon which he has not yet decided, and the study of some subject of political or economic interest. Perhaps one day he may add yet another to those which he is choosing, namely, that of describing the fulfilment of his programme in an article on this page.
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