Encounter: The Medium of the Art of Leisure
Stop reading this article. Put down your phone or step away from your computer and do something else, anything else, and just be. If you stumbled upon this article during your leisure time, you are doing it wrong. Scrolling through social media or your email is not leisure. Being glued to a screen is in no way, shape, or form a means of freedom or relaxation. It actually makes you more overstimulated, addicted, and fatigued. It is the exact opposite of leisure, which is freedom of time, idleness, or being allowed to pause.
Our world has become so fast-paced, thanks in part to social media and globalization, that we have forgetten how to slow down. I am just as guilty of it as anyone else. From eating, to commuting, to our bedtime routine, to even walking around, or waiting in line, we have become conditioned to be attached to our technologies and are hopelessly horrible at taking time to just appreciate the world around us. These habits are becoming so entrenched in our culture that there are even things like the Metaverse, allowing us to create an alternative virtual world, which we can more easily control and in which we can escape from our repulsive realities. But, that will only make our problems worse.
We cannot escape from our physical realities, relationships, and responsibilities. We can however, retreat from them, in times of leisure, to better understand ourselves, our world, and those around us. In his 1952 book, Leisure: the Basis of Culture, Joseph Pieper discusses that leisure is not merely the cessation of work or a time of recreation; rather, it is a time of contemplation, of entering into one’s own self, and of getting to know the essence of things. At the time, he was writing to a society consumed by the post-war work-a-day mentality. He states, “we tend to overwork as a means of self-escape, as a way of trying to justify our existence.” We too live in a world rooted in productivity and success. But, what Pieper could not foresee at the time was also the distractible, disinterested, and disillusioned cultural shift that would arise from the technological advances of recent decades.
Nonetheless, his conclusions still apply in our day and age. The only way to improve our lives and our world is to address these self-centered, technogenic problems, by encountering the world around us in the present moment and by entering into the goodness, truth, and beauty that we see there. Pieper does note that “leisure is only possible when we are at one with ourselves.” In that same line of thought, the solution to our world’s problems begins with each of us individually. When we choose to look up from our screens and encounter ourselves, the world, and the people around us, and accept that growth, healing, and change take personal encounter and individual introspection, we will begin to practice the art of leisure.
Enjoying a meal is something that can be a source of leisure. But, living alone, I have found it so easy to just scroll through various social media apps or binge a few episodes of the latest TV show as I scarf down my food. In our busy world, meals can become mere means of sustenance, instead of a personally fulfilling experience. Given that meals are necessary parts of our days, we should gladly strive to approach them as periods of leisure. Taking time to give thanks for your food sets the stage for a more leisurely encounter. And, if you’re eating alone, avoiding screens during meals allows you to more fully enjoy the taste and smell of the food. You will also have more time to think and reflect on your day, compared to if you were endlessly scrolling through your friends’ lives and the world’s troubles on social media. And, if you’re sharing a meal with someone, the practice of turning off your phones or putting them in the middle of the table, helps you to encounter the real person in front of you, not the virtual reality on the internet.
We can also allow our commute, for those of us who have one these days that is more than walking from the bed to the desk, to be a time of leisure. Have you ever noticed that you traveled from your home to the office without a memory of the trip there? Or, how often do we let our travel to work become another period of productivity, whether it be listening to a podcast, turning on the radio, or scrolling through your phone at stop lights? Commuting is/used to be another staple of daily life. If instead, we allow it to be a time to encounter the people, places, and things around us and let our minds wander in thought or prayer, this essential chunk of your day can become another period of fulfillment.
Looking at screens before bed may seem like a way to unwind, but it actually can negatively affect your health, mental and physical. Many studies have shown a relationship between blue light before bed and disrupted circadian rhythms and hormone levels. This in turn, affects one’s quality of sleep and other things like energy and glucose levels. However, practices such a reflecting on your day, reading, or praying can help you to relax before going to bed and are more fulfilling than the never-ending consumption of entertainment.
Even our time spent walking has been transformed from an enjoyable period of time to a period of productivity or distraction. These days, walking around, you often see people looking down at their phones instead of looking up and around. In a recent New York Times article, they discussed a study that showed that you actually become an agent of chaos if you are distracted while walking in a crowd. You even lead those behind you to walk more chaotically. Contrarily, if you look up while walking, and encounter people and the world around you, you may be able to change someone’s day for the better, whether it be giving a smile or encountering someone in need of help. You could also take time to enjoy the weather and scenery around you or spend the time introspecting about your day.
Maybe one of the most significant opportunities for leisure that we have is waiting in line — at the store, in a restaurant, at the doctor’s office, etc. When we have those periods of extra time, it can be so easy, almost instinctual, to whip out your phone and scroll through social media, texts, or emails. It instantly placates your mind from having to think or wonder about anything else. Not too long ago, before the advent of smart phones, people would have to wait in line without having their minds constantly consumed with stimuli or they would even choose to interact with the people next to them in line. Pieper notes that, “the greatest menace to our capacity for contemplation is the incessant fabrication of tawdry empty stimuli which kill the receptivity of the soul.” The incessant need to satisfy our attention keeps us from being able to truly encounter ourselves and those around us. But, we can choose to look up from our phones and experience the world around us.
A great practice to aid in leisure is grounding. This is a psychological technique in which you pause to focus on the physical world around you. One model is called 5–4–3–2–1 Grounding. In this method, you identify 5 things that you see, 4 objects that you feel, 3 sounds that you hear, 2 things that you smell, and 1 taste that you experience. With each of these, you spend time focusing on the details, for example, the color of the wall, the smoothness of the chair, the rustle of the leaves, the freshness of the air, or the sweetness of an apple. This technique is often used for people dealing with anxiety, as it allows them to take a break from their overwhelming thoughts and to focus on their physical self. However, I think this practice is good for anyone in any situation because it allows you to pause, center yourself in your body, and refocus yourself on the world around you.
For many of us young adults, we are in a time of transition. We are starting new careers, creating new relationships, and forming new families. You could say we are in the space in between two phases. There is a term for this, which is called “liminal space.” The word has lots of applications, but in this setting, it refers to a time of waiting, change, or expectation. It is uncomfortable because there is a lot of uncertainty and we are changing into someone new. In these times, you may pray that God gives you direction and that He brings the discomfort to an end soon. But sometimes, it may feel that God is delaying in bringing us through these transitional times. However, as St. Augustine tells us, “by delaying [his gift], God strengthens our desire; through desire he enlarges our soul and by expanding it, he increases its capacity [for receiving him].” In these times, leisure is especially important, so that we can more fully enter into these experiences, encounter God in the midst of them, and reflect on who we are truly meant to be.
The season of Advent is a perfect example of this. For the past few weeks, we have been celebrating the period of time leading up to the coming of Jesus in the Nativity, when God took on human flesh and became the Emmanuel, God with us. He entered into the world to encounter us where we are at, in our brokenness, loneliness, and difficulties. But, if we are distracted, disinterested, or disillusioned, we will likely miss Him. For, He comes in the “light silent sound,” not in loud show and spectacle (1 Kings 19:12). He humbly enters in to our lives, if we allow Him to come in. Our secular culture has lost this encounter of worship. And, as Pieper mentions, “the vacancy left by absence of worship is filled by mere killing of time and by boredom, which is directly related to inability to enjoy leisure.” When we abandon God, we fill our lives with pointless tasks and pleasures, which end up harming our ability to appreciate ourselves, others, and the world around us. Rather, it is only by regaining a culture of encounter— with ourselves, our neighbor, the stranger, and even our enemies — that we can begin to regain a sense of leisure.
In our work-a-day and technocentric world, we have lost this sense of leisure. As Pieper described in the 1950s, we find it difficult to stop working, or being active, to just enjoy life and to spend time in reflection. These days, our pursuit of leisure is complicated by another layer, in that we are always attached to technology. Even when we do have down time, we spend it glued to a screen, which ends up draining our energy and attention more than it does anything to restore either one. However, if we want to restore ourselves and our world, it starts with encounter, that is, encountering ourselves through introspection, encountering others through accompaniment and empathy, and by encountering the world around us through grounding and reflection. If we take more leisurely time to think before we act, instead of constantly acting on our self-centered desires, we can start to make positive changes in our lives and in the world around us.
