Ecology of Leisure

Some of the best advice I ever took was from Edward Abby, author of The Monkey Wrench Gang, who may have been echoing Bob Marley, who was undoubtedly paraphrasing some older spiritual verse. Essentially, that Life is for Living. Abby, while a hard-core defender of de-industrialized Nature, was a proponent of half-assed-ness, saying something like, "don't ever forget while you're doing this work. Take time to run through the forest like an animal. It will sustain you."

While what we call the Protestant Work Ethic (working for tomorrow) is a huge part of my rationale for doing what I do, living for today sort of makes that happen.

So, if Food, Clothing & Shelter cover the basics, and modern life requires additional energy to produce those basics, what else is left to do? We educate ourselves, we heal our ills, we work...and we play.

II.

I believe that much of what we do is in fact a pursuit of leisure - especially for Americans. Our food, clothing and shelter reflect far more opulent values than basic needs demand. Only the most ____ among us live on raw, whole foods, simple clothing and shelter. (I'm certainly no exception.) I think that all of our "basics" carry with them a rather significant Leisure-cost. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Why not live fully? It's human nature.

But after that, look at what we do: talk, garden, write, watch, play, cook, dance, meditate, sail, run, hunt, sing, draw, fight, laugh, heal, pray, sleep... This entire range of human activity seem just "immediately after" the basics, and we indeed spend a heck of a lot of time and money and energy on them.

Some questions:
-How do we value leisure activities?
-What is the impact of leisure activities - or luxury - on our environment?
-What business opportunities exist when we apply Sustainability principles to leisure activities? (Eco-tourism, etc.)