And in my spare time....

 

Loisir: [French]  /lwasir/ nm spare time: leisure activity

Not many people I know would say they have a lot of spare time on their hands; in fact, most people would say they are overloaded.  Work, school, family; all these things add up at the end of the day.  This doesn’t seem to stop some of us from starting something new: the weekend warriors, house fixers, garden tinkerers, artists.  Most people who are completely over their limit during the weekday often find something to do on the weekend.  Christophe spent to whole week cutting wood, but that didn’t stop him from trying to trick out his chainsaw so he could make his own carpentry wood.  He had spent hours on YouTube watching videos from the Northern United States and Canada where large men in flannel shirts proudly flaunted their do-it-yourself skills.  As for me, I decided to make paper.  It’s an easy enough process with quick results, and I didn’t have to spend the same amount of time hearing the whine of a large machine in my ear. I remember a girl at college whose major was paper making and the sculptures she made from her paper were more than just a little cool.  Today was my second run at it, and the paper came out a little more regular, not that I want it to be like the stuff I can buy in the store, but at least I didn’t need two hands to pick it up.  Why do we do this?  Why, on Monday, do we look forward to the next weekend where we promise ourselves to relax only to find ourselves exhausted on Sunday night from our creative exploitations?  Does it make that rare venture into nothingness even more relaxing, or do we do it so we have something to talk about on Monday morning?  I don’t have the answer – for me anyways, but I know I’m happy with the results of trying something, whatever it might be, even when I fail.  As for the papermaking, I’ll stick with it for a while.  It’s still winter, but spring will be arriving soon.  Then I can take my loisir, whatever it might be, outdoors again.