Lives of Great Sparsity

I dusted off the old camera yesterday afternoon. It was a beautiful day, and I thought here's something I've been neglecting for a while, so I played around taking photos of nature and later editing them.

Listening to this song, which is essentially a break-up song, but with a message that resonates to me beyond the loss of love.

I could have been a painter or a president
But after 25 years
I should be good at something
Gone are the days of me being so reticent

I thought, that's a very good point. You should be good at something, ideally something other than your career. Because there are people who are good at what they do. Some, few, are lucky enough to be making a career out of something they love, so in their case maybe, the two sort of overlap, creating some lee-way. But most people, let's face it, aren't in professions they're great at. They get by, they do a capable job, but you wouldn't say "Oh they're so great at what they do".

And that would be fine if they fostered hobbies and cultivated interests outside of their career. Yet somehow, we seem to have gotten this idea that hobbies are passe. That you don't really need to cultivate interests. I look at some people around me, and am awed by the sparsity and bareness of their private lives. People who just punch the clock at work, and just exist. Whose hobbies seem to exclusively tie into this consumerist, entertainment-addled toxic culture of ours.

Hobbies used to be photography, bird-watching, tennis - stuff like that.

Now, you'll hear young people say going to restaurants is an interest of theirs. And don't be fooled, these are no gourmet connoisseurs. Merely people with such an interior emptiness that eating food has substituted passion. Little wonder then that so many people are currently struggling with their weight. We've turned eating into a substitute for entertainment, which forces us to seek out more and more grandiose meals that poison our bodies, and make a flimsy substitute for an actual passion.

A lot of young people seem to consider "gym" as their hobby. Fair enough, some do gym with purpose, logic and pouring great consideration into it. Some, I imagine, find pleasure in it (though it's still to me questionable whether the satisfaction is in the action itself, or the superficial physical benefit).

But fair enough, feeling yourself become strong can give you a sense of elation, so maybe that can pass as a hobby.

For some. Most of these people, though, seem to be going to the gym out of a sense of obligation. Maybe to counter that excessive food-worship I was talking about. As a way to keep a perky butt or flat stomach to fit in with airbrushed, unrealistic beauty standards. And here, I thought hobbies were supposed to be fun.

Social media seems to be another great "hobby" of my generation. Personally, I am ever in awe of someone who describes their chosen leisure activity as mindlessly scrolling on Instagram or TikTok. Hive might be a pastime, though I'm sure you and I can agree interacting here is vastly different from looking at yet another snarky, trite, or fake uplifting video in your IG feed. That is not a hobby. That is a time-waster.

And finally, my favorite of all, shopping. The Mall. It seems to be the go-to hobby for most of my generation (and not only). Now, I occasionally go if asked by a friend, mostly as a way to interact with them. But for many people, it seems a viable outpouring of their time and (finite) resources.

Indeed, it's a purpose for many. I work so I can afford to buy overpriced crap at Zara or H&M. In that way, The Mall is particularly insidious because it ties into (and justifies) the meaningless day job. I wasted my entire week at a job I hate earning money - I gotta have something to show for it. Might as well be another useless, plasticky top.

If you perceive a certain amount of bitterness in this post, that's because there is. It's disappointing and alienating to me that so many of my peers are so fickle and harebrained. That you need to squander so much precious time in a job you hate or worse, perhaps, are totally indifferent to, is one thing. We all gotta eat. That you'd willingly waste the little time that is left to you outside of that job by indulging in these mass "hobbies" while razing the already sparse interior of your mind is frightening.

It does not bode well for our future, at all. And returning to the song, yes, I do think you should have something to show for yourself in your 20s. Outside of a job. Outside of a romantic relationship. Outside of the rounded gym butt. These are not things your friends would remember about you, if you died tomorrow.
Here lies so-and-so. He had a girlfriend. He went to bars he saw on Instagram. He did Gym.

What happened to Joe is a terrific cook, Jane is a great photographer, Jim is a beautiful dancer?

Have they been replaced with Joe glares at TikToks like it's nobody's business? Jane swipes her credit card on meaningless crap like a pro? Poor, sad Jim has effectively squatted out every last trace of intellect?

I can't help feeling there should be more to this generation. And, to a greater extent, to this society as a whole.