The Business of Leisure

It's amazing how hard we work to figure out how to relax.

Does this seem odd to anyone else?

We enroll in retreats - get to the airport two hours early, fly for another four hours, carry all our electronics with us, and then pay for it with plastic that boomerangs back into our lives three weeks later.

We buy books about Zen, Wabi Sabi, goddesses, secrets, and breathing techniques. We attend monthly book chats to discuss breathing.

We become human pretzels on bright rubber mats and we take classes to learn how to laugh.

We nurse expensive single malts and foo-foo drinks at loud happy-hour joints.

Our volunteering starts off simple enough, but then our inner leader kicks in and before we know it we are on the board of directors.

Those needing to relax in mid-life often find that a red topless car or purple motorcycle are required tools.

We plunk down thousands of dollars on vibrating chairs and pay thin people dressed in hemp to cover our naked bodies with hot oil and rocks. The hotter it is, the bigger their tip.

We spend weeks planning vacation details and the vacation mourning our lack of control over the details. We judge new lands by how they don't fit our expectations. We stand in line for hours to see the Mona Lisa and then look at her for less than two minutes. We snap drive-by photos of sights we've highlighted in travel guides. Then we spend nights and weekends uploading and editing the vacation photos to share with others and we tell people, "hey, I saw the Mona Lisa."

Guppies would find it hard to fly and hummingbirds can't swim. But why don't we know how to relax?

Perhaps it is time we all woke up and smelled the vente soy latte. We know how to relax and recharge. We know how to laugh. We know how to breathe. Or we did once and that knowledge is still in there like riding a bike. The pursuit of leisure is a diversion that can take us in the opposite direction.

Are we addicted to Name Brand leisure? 

What did you do this weekend?
Nothing.
What do you mean, nothing.
I relaxed.
Oh, so you went to the spa? Read a book? Went shopping?
Nothing.
You tried one of those sensory deprivation tanks?
No, I did nothing.
Where did you go?
Nowhere.
Did you take in a DVD?
No.
I see, you got drunk and slept.
No. I did nothing.
I don't understand what you mean. Is something wrong?

To relax, relax. What are we afraid of?