Renewing the Spirit

by John Bullaro

In San Luis Obispo County the recreation industry employs over 68,000 people. It is a major employer and revenue producer for the county. The terms leisure, recreation, and play are often used interchangeably. However, they have different intellectual values.

By definition, leisure is the time free to choose the activity. Recreation is a chosen activity with some structure, and play is free expression in a non-structured activity. Children are best at play, adults seek more structure and often require it in their children. Keep in mind, play helps children with social skills when no pressure is present to win or earn ribbons, and play help children problem solve, when its free expression.

The leisure time available for recreation (unallocated time away from daily burdens) has diminished greatly over the past two decades. Vacations are shorter, fear of job loss tethers people to their work, days off are filled with "must do" projects, and reduced income have all have conspired to diminish recreation choices. I read a great definition of wealth: "It's the amount of leisure time one has." This definition does not include forced leisure, like being unemployed or in prison, but unallocated time as a gift we can give our self.

I believe this loss of leisure time equates to a feeling of loss of control in ones life. When one feels helpless to control even a small segment of their life, they grow anxious, feel helpless, feel some phantom pressure, are always feel tired from lack of good sleep, and wind up feeling hostile towards the world.  

Notice cars in the slow lane on the freeway—how they often speed up when you attempt to merge with freeway traffic. The level of hostility people demonstrate behind the wheel of their car is a failed attempt to exercise control over someone or something else. This aggressive behavior has become a freeway epidemic of savagery that threatens us all.

There are many other social indicators of frustration and hostility people show to their fellow citizens. For instance, people will trample others to gain access to black Friday stores for sale items. Some will become violent over a parking space. In community meetings, neighbors complain they have no peace and quiet at home and fear talking to their neighbors who create the noise. Daily we read of workplace violence, child abuse, and an increase in domestic violence. People feel powerless to control their lives, often choosing to act out against weaker adversaries to regain a sense of power.

Leisure is our personal time to do as we please including doing nothing. We might choose to, for example, walk along the shore and watch the waves, read a book for enjoyment, maybe listen to music, or watch the rain. Recreation, by contrast is an activity that has some structure, often with rewards such as winning a race, winning money in a card game, working out at the gym, even sky diving, and more. The point is structured recreation has rules, procedures, and goals. Play, by contrast to recreation, can be an act that might on its surface look frivolous. Play is free activity that should be unstructured, like children in a sand box. Play can find you manipulating ideas, words, or things a process that may bring forth new ideas, new forms or uses for things--or may yield nothing at all.  Play could be sharing time with a friend, walking or hiking just to feel the warmth of nature, or can find you seated by the sea and writing a poem even it you are not a poet. There are no winners or losers in play. Play can teach us to be more social, creative, and free spiritually.

Some one wrote that wealth can be measured by the free time we have. This definition doesn't work for the unemployed or people incarcerated. It only refers to people who can schedule leisure time when they feel the need. Today people feel the need for more leisure but claim they rarely have free time because . . . the reasons are endless. The lack of leisure time can result in our becoming hostile, angry, or vindictive in our social interaction.

It we "time budget" leisure to provide us with ample opportunities to engage in a favorite recreational activity, we can recreate a more meaningful life.

Residents here on the Central Coast of California are blessed with good weather year round, access to nearby mountains, a sparkling ocean with miles of beaches, scenery unmatched anywhere, lakes and streams, and an army of people willing to provide healthy recreation activities.

The menu of possibilities for recreating oneself here is long and includes: beachcombing, photography, painting, nature writing, nature study, boating, fishing, hiking, bicycling, camping, reading books, and attending classes—all possible at low or no cost. Watching television (unless it's the Super Bowl) or playing X-box, Playstation, or Wii is not recreation—it's time filler. Killing time only shortens life.

The only thing needed for a healthy recreational life is to choose your passion, resolve to set aside time, and find the motivation to just go for it. Jobs, kids, family, and physical limitations need not hold you back.