1. Meanings of Leisure Leisure’s meanings through ….. The humanities
Ancient history
Contemporary connotations
Leisure has multiple meanings and there is no one, single, memorizable right answer definition.
This unit will expose students to the excitement of leisure’s multiple meanings.
You will discover that leisure is more complex than what you may think.
Throughout this class you will discover that leisure is more complex than “Sports” and “Time off”
In this unit you will critically examine leisure from three perspectives: the humanities such as literature, art & music; ancient history; and contemporary interpretations. In so doing, you will begin to understand your own leisure in new, more meaningful ways.
Let’s get started.

2. Using the humanities to understand leisure meaning
Humanities are areas of creation whose subject is human experience.
Related terms:
Impressionism
Aesthetic
Arête
Humanities can be defined as “areas of creation whose subject is human experience”
They include songs, stories, paintings, poems, dance, and other art forms
Humanities include the arts, and the arts, broadly speaking, are artificial objects or experiences created by humans. Therefore, the humanities, ultimately provide a record of human experience.
Leisure is an important part of the human experience across time and cultures, therefore, we can understand meaning in leisure by examining the theme of leisure in literature, art, and music
A review of some related terms will enhance your understanding of this topic:
Impressionism is typically used to describe a style of art that presents an immediate “impression” of an object or event. Impressionist painters take a snapshot of what a person would see at a glance. In terms of art history, impressionism refers to a group of painters exhibiting in Paris from
This idea of portraying “impressions.” or snapshots of what the eye would see, can also be applied to music and literature
Aesthetic has to do with a sense of beauty, “Aesthetics” is the study of the nature of beauty, and standards for what is considered beautiful change across time and culture.
Many of the humanities attempt to show us something that is beautiful about the leisure experience.
Arête (pronounced R-E-T) can be translated as “virtue”. Its central meaning in ancient Greece was excellence of any kind, but it was also associated with the idea of fulfillment of function. For example, to strive for excellence of the body could be to achieve physical perfection in beauty, agility, and strength.
In striving for arête, the ancient Greeks portray the spirit of striving for physical, spiritual, and mental excellence through leisure pursuits.
You can probably relate to arête (striving for excellence) as it applies to our contemporary sport experiences.
Arête is much less applicable to what most of us do with our “Time off”
Your text contains some excellent examples of leisure in literature & poetry, art, and music. Let’s look at some examples

3. Leisure and Literature
Greeting cards, poems, novels, advertising, books, short stories and poems can all portray leisure:
“Hand of Cards” from Four Against Everest by Woodrow Wilson Sayre
“Each one of us is dealt a hand of cards by life. It’s not so much the hand you get dealt but what you do with what you’ve got.”
Greeting cards, poems, novels, advertising, books, short stories and poems can all portray leisure:
Consider the short reading, “Hands of Cards” from Four Against Everest by Woodrow Wilson Sayre,
“Each one of us is dealt a hand of cards by life. It’s not so much the hand you get dealt, but what you do with what you’ve got.”
In this statement Sayre is using the card game as a metaphor for life--this is not so much an impressionist image (that is, one where the author is giving us a snapshot or a feeling of the immediate sensation of an event) but one where the author is teaching us a lesson about life through an image from our leisure experience.
We know that cards are dealt at random, and that we have no real influence--fate determines what we get. But no matter what you get you can do something with it, and that is the true test of humanity.
In chapter 1 turn to the short story “Still of Some Use” This story is more of an impressionist work, giving the reader some idea of what it must have felt like to be there, and more so what it felt like from each person’s perspective. Consider, for example, what it would feel like to be Foster, the ex-wife, or the older and younger son.

4. Another literary image of leisure
A scene from “The Big War” by Anton Myrer (author of the bestselling “The Last Convertible”) where Al, a marine, is describing in a letter home what it is like on board the transport ship where the marines are bored with nothing to do …
Consider another literary image of leisure. This is a scene from a book called The Big War by Antone Myrer. In this scene Al, a marine, is describing in a letter hope to his girlfriend what it’s like to be on board a transport ship where the marines are bored and they have nothing to do.
“Near me Corporal Schulman is playing chess with Capistron, My [chess] set: everybody shunned it like the plague when I first broke it out. “hey, get that, Hey how intel-ect-tual we’re getting this trip” … But we’ve been out over a month now (my God-a month!) and the comic books and terror tales have all be digested and re-digested and regurgitated, and finally Connor and Jay broke down one day after I’d been playing with Schulman and asked me to teach them the moves. And lo and behold it has become a craze, with people waiting their turn and a sort of unofficial tournament under way. My God--that boredom should drive men to intellectual pursuits and pastimes! Heretical thought. Yet so it does indeed seem: Jay is even now dipping into my “Iliad with mixed emotions (“Yeah, it’s not bad, but I don’t know, Al--do they really expect you to swallow that King Kong routine?)… Can it be the boredom will reach such heights they’ll even (dread conjecture!) read Yeats and Eliot and Hopkins, or even Shakespeare? Egad sir: who knows what properly enforced boredom on the national level might not achieve in the name of culture”
This passage implies that when faced with too much boredom, the marines eventually sought out intellectual pursuits (such as chess, reading literature) for their leisure
Questions for reflection:
Is there such a thing as too much boredom?
How do you respond when you have too much free time and nothing to do?
Additional food for thought:
In today’s society people are stressed by the pace of life and often rest when they get free time by seeking something boring. Thom Goodale, a leisure studies professor, asked the question “Once we are rested then what?”
Do you think intellectual pursuits could be one answer to self-satisfaction?

5. Claude Monet Regatta
The aesthetic experience is frequently conveyed by art, and the impressionist painters broke away from realism around 1870 by popularizing impressions that could be had during ones pastimes.
During the 1870s Monet developed his technique for painting atmospheric outdoor light, using broken, rhythmic brushstrokes. He received a lot of abuse from public and critics alike, who complained that the paintings were formless, unfinished, and ugly. He and his family endured poverty. However, by the 1880s, his paintings started to sell.
Monet remained loyal to the impressionists' early goal of capturing the temporary effects of nature through direct observation. This picture, the Regatta, shows boats sailing in a race (at leisure) They're contrasted with a fishing boat in the foreground, perhaps this boat is working.
Vacationers and fisherman in Paris had to share the beach. As this picture shows, a number of visitors are watching the race, while the three mariners talk together in their beached boat.

6. Edouard Manet “Masked Ball at the Opera”
Breaking with traditional religious and mythological subject matter, Manet embraced the notion of modernity and portrayed contemporary life as he saw it. The appearance of the everyday world of the Paris boulevards in his paintings alarmed contemporary viewers, as less-flattering presentations became the subject matter of art.
This painting shows a slice of the elaborate social work of the upper class which involved parties, balls, horse races, and strolls by people dressed in the latest fashions. The masked balls at the Opera were at the top of a long list of public dances. Manet’s men dressed in black to signal self-control and a knowing reserve, a public decorum all the easier to maintain because of the certainty they felt of being masters of the women they sought, or who sought them. Note the partial embraces with eager women leaning forward and cooler men remaining more aloof.

7. Pierre August Renoir “Dance at the Moulin de la Galette”
Along with Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir helped found Impressionism, freeing painting from having to tell a story. Artists could simply capture what they saw. "The artist who uses the least of what is called imagination will be the greatest," he told his son Jean, whose importance as filmmaker equaled his father's as painter.
In this dance scene Renior portrays the Montmarte dance that was an old-fashioned Sunday dance, attracting people from its own neighborhood. Many of the characters in this painting are people Renior knew. This painting does not portray an ordinary dance as you might think, but rather a group of middle class painters and writers who came to the dance to dance with and admire the young working women and use them as models. The men and women portrayed are all under thirty and are attracted to one another without a hint of detachment, as opposed to the detachment shown through partial embraces in the previous painting by Manet.

8. Edgar Degas “Absinthe”
By the mid-1860s Degas was turning to modern themes, particularly contemporary Parisian life. Unlike other Impressionists, he emphasized composition and drawing, and he usually did not paint outdoors.
In this painting, Degas’ mood is very different from the momentary check and pause in life created by Manet. The woman in Absinthe is down-and-out, shoulders slumped, eyes down-cast, feet splayed out, and her costume frowsy. She will derive little comfort from the man next to her, the kind of elbow-leaner who will remain there for hours. This is one of Degas’ most devasting images of public life. The drink in front of the women is readily identified as Absinthe by it’s green color, a drink which was assumed to have addictive and dangerous qualities, and therefore different from the “hygenic beverages” like beer and wine. The man in the picture is drinking a “mazagran” which was a hangover remedy.
If you want to explore the subject of art and leisure in more detail, see the book used as a reference here: Impressionism, Art, Leisure and Parisian Society by Robert Herbert.

9. Music: A basic and universal activity of humans
It reflects much about a society and
subcultures within that society.
It has various styles.
Many popular songs describe impressions
and meaning of leisure experiences.
Music, like play, is considered to be one of the most basic and universal activity of humans.
It reflects much about a society and sub-cultures within that society.
Consider various popular music styles in America today: rock, rap, funk, blues, county, gospel, classical, jazz and others.
Many popular songs describe impressions and meaning of leisure experiences.
Unchained melody-sung here by Leeann Rimes illustrates what time feels like when you’re in love.
All I Wanna Do- by Sheryl Crowe contrasts attitudes of living in the present to have fun versus what it’s like to be working.
Cowboy Take Me Away by the Dixie Chicks speaks of how getting re-connected with nature will help her get back in touch with herself.
Look at impressionist phrases in songs, such as those the mention atmospheric effects like sun, rain and wind.
What examples speak to you? The activity for this unit will allow you to share one of your favorites with the other members of your class.

10. In summary, the humanities of literature, art and music offer many glimpses of leisure meaning
Can you think examples that portray leisure as …
As achieving the good life?
As emotional outlet?
As peace and quiet?
As contact with nature?
As idleness?
As excitement?
As sociability?
As …..?
Can you think examples that portray leisure as …
As achieving the good life?
As emotional outlet?
As peace and quiet?
As contact with nature?
As idleness?
As excitement?
As sociability?
As …..?
Consider which one of these leisure meanings you like to seek out when you get the opportunity.
Can you name one activity that helps you achieve each experience?

11. Leisure legacies from ancient cultures:
The arts
Contemplation
Learning
Mass spectacle
Festivals and holidays
Lush gardens
Sports
Ancient cultures provide many legacies that form a basis for modern leisure. Your text covers six cultural hearths (or “cradles”) of particular systems of civilization. In addition to the material covered by Russell, consider the variety of legacies from the past that we still do today:
Arts--including paintings, street art, music, dance
Contemplation--reading, meditation, religion, yoga & martial arts
Learning--School (as in schole), reading, museums
Mass spectacle--football and hockey games
Festivals and holidays--Christmas, Thanksgiving, May day
Lush gardens--public spaces like Central park and manicured gardens like the Tryon Palace in New Bern
Sports--at all levels from youth to adult leagues, and professional teams for men and women are popular all across America

12. The Origins of the Leisure Class
In 1899 Thorenstein Veblen wrote a book called “The Theory of the Leisure Class”
Veblen described the leisure class as:
A group of people who had goods but did not have to work
First developed in barbarian culture
Superior to other classes
One meaning of the word leisure is in the sense of Veblen’s “leisure class” In this sense, leisure class refers to those people who did not have to work (work being defined as anything involving hard labor and drudgery--not fun stuff) but who had goods and money to not only support their basic needs but enough for excess entertainments.
The leisure class first developed when a society transitioned from primitive, peaceful & simple to barbarism, predation, and warlike activities.
Through competition for goods, there was a winner and a looser and hence a hierarchy for humans was established. Those who had lots of goods were superior to other classes creating the standard for classism. Those in power will try to maintain this status quo.
The leisure class often participated in education, war, and affairs of the state, but not laborious activities. These activities were seen as “better” and helped to establish the place and value of the leisure class as an economic factor of modern life.
Do you believe that competition for money and goods today continues to result in a class-oriented society?

13. Ancient Greece: Plato
Plato’s teaching creates a foundation for examining meaning in leisure
A central role of education was to enlighten the students as how much work was necessary, how to use free time, and its value to life.
Schole and Ascholia
The highest purpose of work was to escape into leisure
Plato explored the link between classical leisure and what it means to be human--to him humans had an inborn drive to play and to seek intrinsic satisfaction. Feelings of competence we can get through play makes us human
Plato’s teaching creates a foundation for examining meaning in leisure
A central role of education, according to Plato, was to enlighten the students as how much work was necessary, how to use free time, and its value to life.
Plato believed the ultimate expression of humanity occurred in leisure. We had to know when we had worked enough (to meet our necessities) and when to stop working and start leisure
Leisure was “non-work,” and was connected with choice and freedom and associated with the work schole. Schole simply meant an opportunity or freedom to choose to do something.
Ascholia was the opposite which meant “having no leisure”-- or in plain English “Too busy with important things to bother with a less important activity”
The key thing to recognize is that what Plato would have called important was leisure and the highest leisure was seeking knowledge; while the less important activities, according to Plato, would be labor and menial work.
Today we would say the opposite Plato’s intention --that work is the more important activity and leisure the least important.

14. Ancient Greece: Aristotle
Leisure was activities performed for their own sake
The goodness of humans was found in their power to reason
There were some downsides to the ideal of Greek leisure
Aristotle added more dimensions to leisure in Ancient Greece
He promoted the concept that leisure did not need to have a purpose, therefore leisure was experiences that are performed for their own sake.
Leisure was the freedom from having to be occupied with menial labor
Aristotle believed humans were unique among all life forms because of their power to reason, therefore a life devoted to contemplation and study was the most proper use of leisure
There were some downsides to the ideal of Greek leisure
it was restricted to the elite “male” citizens
The labor of slaves was what allowed the male Greek citizens to avoid work
Today we “say” we reject leisure if it refers to the privileges of an elite class supported by the labor of others. Keep in mind that while we say this, it may not be entirely true in how we live!

15. Leisure in Ancient Rome
Similarities and differences with Greek culture
Leisure versus work
Leisure and social control
While Rome adopted the arts of the Greeks they had very different values with regards to leisure.
They viewed leisure more practically, and felt that one earned the right to leisure after a day of work. This is more similar to the Puritan work ethic many still follow in America today. We work hard and then we play.
As Rome grew in wealth and there were large numbers of free, but poor, citizens known as Plebeians, the Romans began to use leisure as a form of social control. Gladiator fights in the coliseum were held for thousands of spectators (the circus) and loaves of bread with thrown into the crowds to placate the hungry. These events became increasingly bloody and violent as the aristocracy sought to keep a lid on political unrest.
These excesses became a trademark of the Roman culture, whereas the Greeks had preached moderation in all things.
Therefore, the groundwork for contemporary views of leisure was laid in ancient Rome.

16. Leisure in Contemporary Culture Free Time
Time free from the obligations of work (subsistence) and existence (eating, sleeping, and so on).
Leisure is time free for making personal choices
Free time can be regarded as privilege or as a chance to escape
While leisure can have many different meanings in contemporary culture, free time is probably the most common interpretation of leisure for Americans.
Leisure is time free from making choices, therefore it may be possible to have un-obligated time but not have leisure. Consider a person in prison, the prisoner may have no obligations, but he or she is not free to choose. Therefore, free time can be considered necessary for leisure but not sufficient.
This view allows us to determine how much leisure people have.
Views of free time can vary. If leisure is seen as a privilege one is more likely to engage in worthwhile pursuits, if and when leisure is seen as an opportunity to escape a person may choose mindless activity such as television, or even escape through drugs or alcohol.

17. Leisure in Contemporary Culture: Activity
The view of many recreation professionals
Recreation and leisure are often used synonymously
Potential problem
Most recreation professionals see leisure as recreational activity (e.g. sports, games, drama, and so on).
This view of leisure allows us to compare activities between people and groups
A problem arises when considering any one activity, say golf. Would it be leisure to someone all the time? For example, if I choose to play golf on Saturday it’s leisure, if I have to attend a golf tournament on Friday evening for my job, it may not be leisure.
This makes it difficult to quantify how much leisure a person has by what activities they do.

18. Leisure in Contemporary Culture State of Mind
Leisure is defined by the meaning it holds for the individual, by the individual, from his or her own point of view
Self-expression, self-achievement, and self-actualization
Leisure as a state of mind adds another useful dimension for describing the leisure experience.
If leisure is defined by state of mind, it may involve feelings like intrinsic satisfaction and freedom.
In this case leisure is not dependent on activity--a person could freely choose to teach because they find it intrinsically satisfying.
Self-expression, self-achievement, and self-actualization are all associated with this view of leisure.

19. So …What is leisure?
No one single memorizable, right-answer definition of leisure
Complex
Make conscious decisions
So … you might ask, what is leisure? As stated at the start of this section, there is not one single definition of leisure
It is more complex than meets the un-critical eye.
By examining many meanings, you can learn to make conscious decisions for how you use leisure to achieve the optimal meaning in your life
Ultimately, that is the main purpose of this course.

20. What next?
Make sure your ‘notes page’ is completely filled in with notes from this assignment and the assigned reading.
Complete the unit activity
Complete the unit reflection paper
Complete the unit quiz