So, let’s take a step back. What is a ‘hobby’? I looked this up on the Internet. My first ‘find’ was, “an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure,” which somehow seems a little inadequate. I mean, is eating or drinking a hobby? I think not. A slightly better one, I thought, was, “an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation”. Another one was similar: “a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation.”
OK, but here’s the thing: if you as a silver surfer started off this hobby when you were young, it is probable that, if you collected or made things, you have a lot of them by now. This sets me thinking pros and cons of hobby collecting or making. So here you are with a collection of 2000 china thimbles, 300 mugs, 200 plates, ninety-
Collecting or making things seem fairly straight forward hobbies. When I was young, stamp collecting was common. Both my wife and I both have old stamp albums but neither of us have, what was it, a Penny Red or a Penny Black that was going to make your fortune? I used to, in my early teenage years, have a bedroom ceiling strung with a dozen or more model planes, and yet I’ve never really seen myself as a hobby person.
Hobbies, on the Internet at least, seem to stretch definitions. For instance I got up a page of hobbies for men, only to find, “Cooking and Grilling, (OK), Homebrewing Beer (Yes, again), Skiing and Snowboarding (wooah, that’s a sport isn’t it? Can that be a hobby?), Leatherworking (yes, that fits), Chess (er… is a game a hobby?), Rocketry (what is that?), Investing (er.. I suppose so, why not?)” See, it’s not so clear is it?
So I looked up hobbies for women. I will make no comment otherwise I’m bound to be in trouble. This is not my list, just one on the Net: “Cooking, Ballroom Dancing, Singing, Running/Jogging, Horse riding, Reading, Learning a Foreign Language, Blogging.” It strikes me these two lists are highly sexist! I, a mere male, read, cook, blog and in the distant past have even done running and ballroom dancing! So what started out as a mundane series of thoughts, which then became in investigation, has now led me into deep water.
I think, going back to the beginning, key features have to be things done for pleasure or relaxation. I think when I look at that last word, playing Squash cannot be a hobby! Neither could playing rugby or ice hockey. But you have to be careful here because hours of intense concentration put into tapestry, say, or engraving, perhaps, doesn’t stop it being a hobby.
Now I know I should have gone there earlier but I have just been to Wikipedia on “List of Hobbies” and they include, games, sports and you name it! And I think their definition is the best so far: “an activity, interest, enthusiasm, or pastime that is undertaken for pleasure or relaxation, typically done during one's own time.”
Now I have a further question: do all nations have hobbies? I suspect not. I suspect hobbies are the prerogative of the rich and affluent nations. When I look through the Wikipedia list I’ve just referred to, I would guess that 99% of those lists would not be found in what used to be called ‘Third World countries’.
Moreover, I must revise my previous comment about not being a hobby person. At some time or other I have (from their list) done calligraphy, creative writing, drawing, do-
The above list, incidentally was under the heading “Indoors casual hobbies” and when I look at the next list, ‘Outdoors’ and then, ‘Collection hobbies’ I realise I have done (and still do) a load more. I need to take more note of whoever it was who said, “Know yourself!” If you want to sharpen up your memory of what you’ve done in life, that page, “List of Hobbies” on Wikipedia, is a good start. (Health warning: Using the Internet can have a demeaning effect. I just came across a site that claimed to have the world’s largest list of hobbies and they showed over 300, so even if on the previous lists I could raise a dozen over the years, I am still a mere amateur hobbyist -
I may be wrong (yet again) here, but I get the impression that whenever you approach antique collecting programs on say the TV, the word ‘collectables’ rather suggests more of a money-
When I look back I realise there are also unfulfilled desires in respect of hobbies. For instance, at one time I did a small amount of furniture renovation which gave me great pleasure and satisfaction, but time has passed and busyness has stopped me doing it more. Shame! I wonder if that is true of many people? I’m also aware that with the passing of time not all my faculties are as good as they used to be. At one time I made four-
Hobbies take place in the cellar and smell of airplane glue.
John Updike
“There are people everywhere, who fill their time, or what they believe to be their spare time, by collecting stamps, coins, medals, vases, postcards, matchboxes, books, clocks, sport shirts, autographs, stones, clay figurines, empty beverage cans, little angels, cacti, opera programmes, lighters, pens, owls, music boxes, bottles, bonsai trees, paintings, mugs, pipes, glass obelisks, ceramic ducks, old toys, carnival masks, and they probably do so out of something that we might call metaphysical angst, perhaps because they cannot bear the idea of chaos being the one ruler of the universe, which is why, using their limited powers and with no divine help, they attempt to impose some order on the world, and for a short while they manage it, but only as long as they are there to defend their collection, because when the day comes when it must be dispersed, and that day always comes, either with their death or when the collector grows weary, everything goes back to its beginnings, everything returns to chaos.”
José Saramago
“It can be coins or sports or politics or horses or music or faith... the saddest people I've ever met in life are the ones who don't care deeply about anything at all. Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand, and without them, any happiness is only temporary, because there's nothing to make it last.”
Nicholas Sparks
“To be happy in life, develop at least four hobbies: one to bring you money, one to keep you healthy, one to bring you joy, and one to bring you peace.”
Stan Jacobs
Today is life -
Dale Carnegie