One of the most comforting words known to mankind is “leisure.” When I hear that word I think, “Ahhh yes finally a break from a busy life and time to relax.” Leisure is something that a person enjoys doing when they are not working, and we all have different ideas of leisure. It has changed drastically since the beginning of time, being that when humans were first here on earth they didn’t really have the pleasure of leisure because they had to work for everything they did in order to stay alive. Nowadays nearly everyone is blessed with a chance to have leisure time because it is becoming a part of everyday culture, but some cultures take leisure time more seriously and hold it to a higher importance.
Being in Italy for the past 4 weeks has given me a new insight to the word “leisure.” I feel like Italians have a secret about leisure that they are not sharing with the rest of the world. They deserve the leisure time that they get and they do it so well. Italians are pros at relaxing and enjoying what they do. When I go to any piazza in Italy or other parts of Italy such as parks or restaurants there just seems to be an atmosphere of relaxation and leisure. Italians really know how to take a step back from their work and busy lives and just breathe and do something that they really enjoy without being on the clock.
There are all different types of leisure’s that people enjoy doing, and some of these include; reading, taking a stroll in a park, painting and/or drawing, floating around the pond, watching a movie, baking, taking a nap, and many others. However, do not confuse leisure with being lazy. There is a big difference with relaxing with a good book or movie for a day and just sitting on the couch doing nothing all day (or even more than a day in some cases).
I feel that Americans have a hard time balancing work and leisure time. I have seemed to notice that most Americans are either work alcoholics or plain out lazy. Many Americans do not seem to know how to balance out the proper ratio or leisure time versus work time. Some of it had to do with Americans working all day and then taking their work home with them to work on all night and then just repeat the cycle the next day. Yes, it is okay to do this sometimes but if a person is working that much and making their work life that important it will really start to stress them out and start wearing them down. There are also the people that think everything can be handed to them so they get lazy and feel like they do not have to work for anything, so everyday to them is some sort of “leisure” day even though they are abusing the word.
Americans should really start to look into the way of life in Italy and the culture they have going on here, because these people seem to know what they are doing and it is most defiantly working for them. At the end of these 8 weeks here in Rome and other various parts of Italy I have visited I am sure to take back a better appreciation of leisure time and should not abuse it at all. Hopefully I can teach or show by example to some friends, family members or even some strangers how to properly take a couple hours or a day for leisure. Every citizen in every country should know how and be able to take leisure time because without it we are all just working and not really living.
Italians are a lot better at relaxing! It probably has somethiong to do with the fact they get a siesta everyday. Also, they have less stress on their minds then us americans. Most Italians, from what we have been told, have a good support system in the form of family.
ReplyDelete