The Possession of Leisure

Take a look around you. Everyone is running. Running after something or the other. Running to reach someplace. Running to catch a train. Running to make a meeting. Running to make end meet. Running to stay ahead of the others. Running after time. Everyone seems to have something to run after. Something that they aspire for. Something that they dream about. Something that they want to own. To possess. Whether it is at work or at home. And they end up spending their entire lives running, without ever having the joy of enjoying what they have attained through all this running. The time for enjoying is always tomorrow. Yet, tomorrow never seems to come. And one day it is all over. You lie on your deathbed, looking back at your life, and the process of running starts all over again. What could have been done. What should have been done. What needed to be done. All the missed opportunities. Now gone forever. And you close your eyes to eternal sleep.

Let us step back for a while and ask ourselves what is the purpose of all this running, when on that final moment of reckoning, all you have is you and your memories. Can the memories be of joy and happiness of a life well lived, or does it have to be about the things that could have been. I once read somewhere “No one on his deathbed ever said, I wish I had spent more time in the office.” So true. Yet, every waking moment of our lives we run after that elusive pot of gold at the rainbow. We run after that mirage in the horizon. We are always on the lookout for that turn in the road of our lives which will change our fortunes forever. And yet, when we finally do take that turn, there emerges ahead of us yet another turn, yet another rainbow, yet another mirage. And the chase continues. We continue to run till we fall.

Why can’t we gift ourselves the luxury of leisure? Why can’t we decide to take possession of that luxury called time? Is it decadence that allows us that luxury? Is it only people who do not have to think about what tomorrow entails who can have the luxury of leisure. Without a care in the world, without the eternal running endemic to humankind? Do people look at those with time on their hands, enjoying the luxury of leisure as fortunate human beings who do not have to work for a living? Maybe yes. But when you come down to think of it, how much of our lives are spent in keeping up with the person next door? Why do we have to compare ourselves with someone else? And why does all equations have to be drawn against the equaliser of material possessions? Isn’t that what we try to do when we are running? Get a better job, a higher salary, a bigger car, a four bedroom house, china and silver on the table? Why does it have to be that? Why can’t we be happy to live the life that we want to? Maybe because we have forgotten what we want out of life. Maybe we never knew what life has to offer. Maybe we are so conditioned to grow up, get educated, get employed, make money and teach our children to do the same. Why can’t we step back for once and gift ourselves the luxury of leisure?

Is it so difficult to possess leisure? No, it is not. Not when you really get down to it. What does one need to lead a happy and contended life? Not much, to be honest. Three square meals a day, a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs and the wind in our faces. Why should we consider ourselves happy only if we have the big television and a fancy cellphone and a sparkling sedan parked outside? We will not take any of that away with us when we make out final journey. On that day if we can ride the wagon with a smile on our faces and no regrets in our hearts, is the proof of a fulfilled life.

I would love to go back to sustenance living. Grow what you can eat, build a home with your own hands, as big as your needs, breathe the fresh clean air away from the dust and grime and fumes of the city, never have anyone to compete with, just have family around you to love and to cherish. That is my dream. I want to stop running and give myself the luxury of leisure.