At this time of my life, I believe that one can live without love (愛情.. not love in general :P ), but not without hobbies.
What do you think of that? Do you agree or you think 玩物喪志? Or you feel the precious leisure time should be spent on real people (or pets if people are too much troubles) rather than personal pursuits? Well, I have to say I've never really been ambitious so I don't agree with 玩物喪志 - hobbies will always be the center of my life.
There are many bad hobbies though; some of them are quite addictive like drinking, gambling, and most girls would agree that online-gaming is the most damaging one if you happen to have a boyfriend/husband addicted to it.
I always have too many hobbies, recently I’ve been reviewing them and made a decision that I should concentrate on few of them only, and I would make sure they don't consume my time up to a harmful degree. I've friends who are destroyed in single one hobby/activity, as a result they can rarely care about others things/people genuinely...I would say that is rather limited and dangerous life. I think we ought to have several hobbies so we won't be sucked into only one of them. But if you were determined to become an artist, to devote all your time to beautify the whole human race, there is no other choice except to be careless of all other things/people to reach your goal. That is, however, a luxurious privilege for really talented & special people. If you're normal like me, I suggest you not to waste your life doing genius’ work.
Why is it important to develop several lifetime hobbies? A picture is worth thousand words, so I'll give you a picture: If you go to any local library in Taipei, there are always many old people reading newspapers there, doing nothing else. Just picture that! I've been interested for further investigation on this matter, so I went there to observe a few times. Regret to say that not one, not single one of them during my visits was reading a book instead. What a depressing view don’t you think? How could one's mind be satisfied with news...(either on TV or paper. I know some people could watch news ALL day.) It’s sad but it’s something to think about.
Sorry for my long blog, I always write too much. But I'd love to read others long blogs though, please also share them here :)
I'll stop now and conclude with this line: A balanced & meaningful life takes great efforts.
Jennifer Nov.27.2008 4:30pm
