“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” – Bertrand Russell
America (where I live) was founded on Puritan and Protestant ideals of redemption. You became good by redeeming your time, work, money, basically everything. Everything had a purpose or it was sloth and wasteful.
That isn’t as predominant as it once was but it still does have a strong thread in many families and, to be honest, I have learned great lessons from one such family about that, and it has made me a much better person.
But, it defeats the purpose of having a ‘purpose driven’ life to only pay attention to what you are SURE is bound up in your purpose, in your effort to achieve something.
Steve Jobs of Apple tells the story of his deciding on a whim to take a Calligraphy course. He had no idea why, just sounded fun. He knew it didn’t have any connection to whatever goals he had in life (he didn’t have many at that time) but he just wanted to do so he did.
He credits that course with being one of the essential elements to him making the Mac the graphic designer’s favorite computer. It brought in fonts and design ability that had not been contemplated by prior computer makers. He was just enjoying wasting his time taking that course. But it was not wasted time.
How do you enjoy wasting time?
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com