Kris O'Connell
16 supporters

Playtime

Oct 27, 2022

When was the last time you've taken a nap? In the day and age of getting shit done, when was the last time you felt good enough to lay your ass down for a few minutes, close your eyes, and drift off into a restful slumber for a little bit during the day? I mean without having to plan it... just doing it. Because if it's been more than a week, a month, a year…you're due.

You may wake up like you're in a fog, but when you're finally removed from the fog, you're relaaaaaaxed. You're calm. You're not stressed. You can think clearly. You can get more done and feel comfortable about it. No one said you have to, but you can. You can continue to stay relaxed and do a whole bunch of nothing. You can get creative. You can do whatever the fuuuuuuck you want.

But I understand why entire cultures do it. "Sietas." Sometimes it's been a little bit since I just conked out for an hour during the day. Wow, wow, wooooooow... how much better you feel afterwards. The past few days I think I might have been stressed from work, down emotionally after not seeing the sun for a few days, or just in need of a nap? Who knows. But just coming from a deep slumber where I was probably out for 90 minutes, I feel incredible.

Not really. Not yet, anyways. In fact, I feel like I could go to sleep for the rest of the night. Cut me some slack, it's only been about 15 minutes since I woke up. Dinner's almost ready, I want to eat, and I don't want to write after dinner. Something about doing any writing after dinner steals time from playtime... from my leisure.

What else do other cultures do that bring great joy to their lives? I think it's Argentina or Spain (excuse my ignorance, Latin countries) that take an entire month off. No one really works for the entire month of August. I want to say it's Argentina.. or is it Portugal? Fuck. I'm not googling this, you do it. This is creative writing, bitch. I don't have to do fact checks.

Imagine that, though. An entire month off to spend time with friends and family in the midst of the summer? I can't really wrap my head around it. Not that I haven't taken some considerable time off to spend time with others, but I don't think I've seen other people do it with me. When you're doing it by yourself, it's really not as much fun. It's actually a little depressing because no one else is around. You just get a lot of "me" time in. Which is okay, but the entire country should take it off. Of course, we'll need some gas station attendants, some people working at the grocery store, and some other essentials taken care of… but offices can shut down. Non-essential workers could take a month. The more I think about this, the more I'm realizing it's insanely impossible to make this happen. Maybe we could do it for a couple days a week. People just go to work for 3 out of the 7 days a week. Slam a full 32 hours into those 3 days and then the other 4 days we're all able to be with our closest friends and families.

Deal. I've signed this deal for everyone, everyone. Now we can enjoy 4 days a week with the people that matter most and then 3 days a week actually getting a shit ton of work done. We'll all be full-potentially productive.

What are some other cool ones? Don't they eat their young in North Korea? No? Is that a real one? I guess we wouldn't want to implement it anyways.

Being totally transparent, I'm still pretty fixated on the nap. There's a part of me that would really love to take another one. Did I say that already? I guess this one could be about 8 hours long and last until morning.

There are some cultures cough Okinawans cough that keep their kids going to school until 9pm on a Friday night. That's the opposite of what scholar or "schola" actually meant. Schola (Latin? Greek? Google it) meant "leisure." It was because we have all of our survival needs taken care of that we could focus on the things that didn't actually matter…like math and science.

What an insane thing to say - "…to focus on the things that didn't matter like math and science." I guess when you're being chased by bears, trying to find your next meal, and just looking to stay warm when it's cold who really gives a fuck what X equals?

Regardless, school doesn't have any correlation to leisure anymore. I was taught how to put more on your plate, to work harder, to learn more and to be okay with it so that we could get a job when we're older. Where did the goddamned leisure go?! We could all use a bit more leisure in our day to day if you hadn't noticed. A 40 hour workweek was invented so that people could survive the great depression. By getting more work spread out to more people, everyone was more productive when they worked less. Who the fuck is productive during an 80 work week? I know the last time I worked that much in a week half of that time was me trying to find a couple hours to find a secret spot that I could take a nap.

Our brains are important, managing our stress levels are important, and leisure is important. Make sure you're taking care of your brain by feeding it, exercising it, and resting it. Lower your stress levels by exercising, eating right, taking naps, and other wild shit that works (meditation, cold showers, etc.). Make sure your leisure remains leisure. What do I mean? I mean if it feels like work, you're not having fun, and it feels overwhelming…take a break. No one cares if you do, but you…so do it. Ok, message received, Kris. It's time for dinner and leisure.

Bye.

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