What is the point of leisure?
For Americans, leisure is about doing nothing, catching up for lost time in the yard or house, reading a book or taking in a movie. For Italians, it is the pursuit of life through their writing, art or other artistic means. It is a game played "strictly according to the rules of the game as the Italians understood them at the time and understand them, more or less unchanged, today." (172) They work to better the moral and material conditons, but in the end, they remain the same.
In Europe, it is about learning how the other half lives and educating yourself so that one can tell the story through art, writing, etc. It is about not taking what we have or know for granted. In European households after dinner and relaxing around the table, the stories begin and history is passed on in the form of folklore about the people that are no longer around and stories to warn the younger generation are past down. Too often in America, we hear stories of not eating supper together and valuable family time is lost by taking it for granted.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Pamela, good work incorporating the readings. Well done. Remember that 325 blogs are suppose to be 3-4 paragraphs. You could also include our excursion and what you discovered about yourself during our leisure time in Rome.
ReplyDeletePammers, you took a different twist on leisure and I appreciate it. You mentioned several things that were very interesting. Way to incorporate the readings and base your blog off of it. Great job!
ReplyDeleteWell done with your blog. I like the bit about Americans not eating meals together. I think it is very special that, in Italy, people are expected to sit down and eat their meals together.
ReplyDelete