Is there a purpose and value to pursuing seemingly useless activities? In this age of productivity, efficiency, and getting ahead, who has time to waste?
If you asked my father that question back in the late 1960s, his answer might have been “No.” He once told me that it’s important to take time out for yourself. To daydream, read, and explore one’s passions for the simple joy of it.
“Relax, recharge, and reflect. Sometimes it’s OK to do nothing.” -Izey Victoria Odiase
Early in my father’s legal career, his work took him to Sacramento, California. This was hours away from our home in the hills of Los Gatos, California.
My parents didn’t want to sell their home and move, so Dad rented a small apartment in Sacramento. He stayed there during his work week and returned home on Thursday evenings for a long weekend.
It was a sacrifice for several years, but we made the best of it. My father spent evenings away reading and pursuing his intellectual and creative interests.
An amateur historian with a love of Austrian history, Dad built beautiful, cardboard dioramas of Schönbrunn Palace, St. Charles Church (the Karlskirche), and other structures from Vienna.
Back then, there was no Instagram and Facebook for Dad to showcase his handiwork. But then, he didn’t craft these beautiful dioramas for money or attention. He did it solely for the joy they brought him.
Diorama of St. Charles Church
Dad passed away in 2004. I carefully boxed up his dioramas and held onto them ever since. Every time I unbox and study them, they bring me joy.
During those early days in Sacramento, Dad could have found more productive things to do. He could have polished his legal briefs, or maybe exercised. Instead, he labored for hours crafting model buildings. He made them for his own pleasure and amusement.
I’m so thankful he did that because it’s a piece of him that I still have.
Comparison is the thief of joy
Your creative and intellectual life does not require a professional or social utility. Personal enrichment and pleasure can be their own means to an end.
Not every artistic or cerebral pursuit must lead to a paycheck, social media stardom, or a better world.
Somehow in today’s culture of busyness and productivity, we feel like everything we do must result in something productive. Be it more income, social change, or entertainment. Not to mention social media attention.
I know of an artist who stopped painting and posting on Instagram because he felt he couldn’t keep up with everyone else. He believed his work was inferior and derivative. The lack of attention on Instagram, and the posted work of everyone else, depressed him. The joy he once derived from painting was sucked out of him.
“Comparison is the thief of joy.” -Teddy Roosevelt
Purpose can stifle
Instead of enjoying creative work for its own sake, some people get wrapped up in the social media game of attention and likes. They constantly compare themselves and their creative work to everyone else. They assume they’re losers if they don’t get likes or visitors on their social media pages.
Other times, people feel they should generate an income from their creative passion, to justify the time and expense they put into it. They devote more and more time promoting their work.
Maybe they put up a website, Etsy page, or Instagram account to promote their efforts. Over time, their creative passion becomes less fun and starts to feel more like an unwelcome responsibility.
Sometimes purpose can stifle.
“Nothing will stifle your human evolution more than fame and fortune.” -Patti Smith
When I used to do commissioned artwork, the results were never as good or satisfying as my personal work. Paintings and writing that came from my heart, rather than a client’s specifications, always turned out better. It’s partly why I abandoned commissions and collaborative projects.
We must ask ourselves why we create or pursue intellectual interests in the first place. For many of us, the answer is that it’s fun. We get lost in the act of reading or creating, and time flies by. We don’t do it for money or fame, we do it because it feeds our mind and soul.
The era of the hustle
Author Zena Hitz, in her book “Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life,” makes the case for uselessness. As the interior jacket of her book states:
Today, when even the humanities are often defended only for their economic or political usefulness, Hitz says our intellectual lives are valuable not despite but because of their practical uselessness. And while anyone can have an intellectual life, she encourages academics, in particular, to get back in touch with the desire to learn for its own sake, and calls on Universities to return to person-to-person transmissions of the habits of mind and heart that bring out the best in us.
Hitz left the world of academia, joined a religious Catholic order for a while, and eventually returned to teaching with a renewed appreciation for the pleasures of learning.
Hitz argues that few experiences are so fulfilling as the inner life. Whether you’re a gardener, bibliophile, bird watcher, or amateur astronomer, such pursuits enrich us deeply.
Molly Conway, writing in ManRepeller.com, notes:
We live in the era of the hustle. Of following our dreams until the end, and then pushing ourselves more. And every time we feel beholden to capitalize on the rare places where our skills and our joy intersect, we underline the idea that financial gain is the ultimate pursuit. If we’re good at it, we should sell it. If we’re good at it and we love it, we should definitely sell it.
Conway’s article, “The Modern Trap of Turning Hobbies Into Hustles,” drives home the point that, “You don’t have to monetize your joy.” She shares a humorous observation from Adam J. Kurtz, author of Things Are What You Make of Them. Kurtz puts a spin on the adage, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” to the following:
“Do what you love and you’ll work super f***ing hard all the time with no separation or any boundaries and also take everything extremely personally.”
A fuller sort of humanity
I can relate. As a writer and artist, I often feel the need to work on another book or build an online course. Whenever I sit down to enjoy a good book, I feel like I’m not being productive. Or I tell myself that it’s research, which will inform my writing. But the truth is, sometimes I just want to escape into a good book.
Molly Conway summed up her article with this:
We don’t have to monetize or optimize or organize our joy. Hobbies don’t have to be imbued with a purpose beyond our own enjoyment of them. They, alone, can be enough.
We need uselessness in our lives. We need to take refuge from the rat race and cult of busyness.
Good books, gardens, walks in the woods, and all the other creative and intellectual escapes we choose don’t have to produce anything other than a sense of wellbeing. A fuller sort of humanity.
You don’t have to monetize your passions if you don’t want to. It’s not necessary to turn your joy into a side hustle. If you want a greater sense of wellbeing and happiness, make room for more uselessness in your life.
Before you go
I’m John P. Weiss. I draw cartoons, paint, and write about life. Get on my free email list here for the latest artwork and essays.
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This post was previously published on Medium.
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Artwork and photos by John P. Weiss
