A Hobby

I often find myself asking people the same question: what is your hobby?

You may or may not be surprised at how many people identify watching TV as their hobby.  I usually am successful at resisting the urge to say something sarcastic.

Watching TV or listening to music is 'entertainment.'  It is not, NOT, NOT a hobby.  A hobby is an activity in which you actively engage your mind in a creative process.  Watching TV is neither active nor creative.  It is numbing.  That's what entertainment does... it numbs us to our thoughts.

A hobby is an active engagement of our faculties, enfolding our bodies, minds, and our spirits.  Yes, a hobby is a spiritual activity because your spirit is where you are.

Hobbies are important these days because we suffer from so much information overload that our minds become bogged down.  A hobby is a kind of meditation, where we leave our worries and concerns to do something constructive.

In an age of manufacturing, we assume that everything we own or do must look like it was just unpacked from the store, and so we have lost the feel for hand-made items and their natural 'flaws' and inconsistencies.  Our modern possessions have lost the human feel of their design and making, and so we assume that we can't make things, even for fun.

This is not true.  You don't have to make something perfect in order to enjoy and benefit from the process.  If we are embarrassed, then we are probably just suffering from a little ego.

Most addicts discover that addiction is a full time occupation, and so they drop their hobbies.  Recovery means taking back that creative drive drowned in pills and booze and unhealthy activities.  It means getting a hobby.

We are made in the image and likeness of a Creator, and so we are also more human when we are creating.  As you trudge the road of happy destiny, do not forget the importance of hobbies.

Oh, and organizing your MP3 collection is not a hobby.  I have heard that one before.  I asked, "Did you use to use meth?"  The reply was something like, "Wow, how did you know?!"