Leisure time. Like so many things, the devil is in the details. I don’t always separate my world of work from what we might call “downtime.” I used to get a big rush out of doing anthropological fieldwork for a project I was working on. Likewise, working in the shop carving is relaxing. And I enjoy going places with my family that relate to my professional interests. It is interesting that visits to places with maritime museums head up my list of places to go with the family.
There is a dynamic balance between work and play for me. It’s a game keeping everything in its place but all together.
Then there is the little hole in the wall I call my office. Crowded into one corner is the computer. The model railroad is in the center of the room. And some of my reference libraries along the walls. All my interests crash together in my room, barely over 11 by 11 feet. One moment, I am looking at drawings of a schooner for carving; the next, I am working on some details of the model railroad, and later, I am editing a video. As you can see, boundaries are hard to come by – I am rendering a video while I read an article on carving or just running a train.
I’m not sanctimoniously “multitasking” to be an efficient drone. I’m just enjoying myself while being productive. This is a great situation for me, but I admit it wasn’t always the case. Luckily, I can now arrange my life this way, and I am having a good time mixing leisure with labor.
One final note: my office has always been considered the perfect location for the family cats to enjoy leisure.
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Cats love to be where the action is…or they will create their own. Such a cute photo!
Cool pic! Thanks for the “SHARE!”
When I was working I had a separation in my living space which slowly evolved into an integrated space when classes went online or partially online and I was writing fiction. OK, my students thought their grades were fiction but…
For some the lack of separation works out, but not always. I’ve had a strict policy of not living in the communities that have hired me to work for them. It’s not because I don’t like the work it’s because of the politics. Amazingly politics, of the most idiotic sort, can infiltrate the simplest thing, and I don’t like people annoying me at the dinner table or over the fence.
That’s so true. Politics destroyed an art co-op of which I was a member the year after I moved here. At some level gossip is politics or vice versa. I don’t like people annoying me anywhere and THAT was just so stupid. It’s kind of why I try not to have anything to do with any organization, especially in a place as incestuous as this remote valley where so much is based on personality and who knows and likes whom.
Amen!