What counts as recreation?
I get a hard time from my friends and family for being too serious. I'm actually a bit of a ham, so it's not a personality thing they're (mostly) talking about. It has more to do with my habits. I do work a lot, and when I "play" it doesn't look like play to most people. Right now, my free time is devoted to projects around the house (garden, etc), blogging (at Deepest Health - been really slow lately and it pains me) and spiritual education (mostly through watching video, listening to audio and reading). I can't imagine what else I would want to do with my time. Except other, similar, activities.
I tried to get into D&D again. It was fun, for sure, and I'm always happy to meet new geeky folks. However, I just couldn't mentally make space for it. Why? Because I don't like to have fun? No. Partly it's that the business is in a growth stage (or, at least, I hope it is) and demands a lot from me. This isn't a forever thing, it's a right now thing. But additionally, whenever I was playing I found myself thinking about other things I could/should be doing. Like the above. But, also learning Chinese, reading the Classics, working through old material that I haven't digested yet (in the realm of herbs, Chinese medical theory, etc). Am I too serious? I don't think so. I just find different things to be fun than most folks do. I like to advance my understanding of my profession. I like to work through difficult aspects of patient cases. I like to go on walks listening to prominent spiritual educators. I like to dig in my garden. I like to fix my gutters. I like to spend time digesting and distilling my life experience and writing interesting blog posts. I like figuring out how to make my podcasts better. I like to research how to increase my earnings from blogging and elsewhere. I don't like television. Not even when it's on the computer. Do I sometimes watch shows with Amanda? Sure. Often? Nope. I don't like to read fiction much, I don't find myself pining for the latest movies, etc... I do like games sometimes, but only with family, and only because it's fun to hang out with them. Solitaire? Not so much. So, yeah, maybe I'm too serious - but I'm having a great time. I question why people seem to think that you can only be having fun if you're wasting your time. It's weird, ok? One note: I do have one entirely frivolous pasttime - watching basketball. So get off my back! ;)---
