The Neglect of Relaxation

The Atlantic Monthly used to feature an entertaining section on historical encounters between some of the significant figures of a particular periodFrederick the Great and Voltaire, Sarah Bernhardt and Thomas Edison, Fats Walter and Al Capone-with the suggestion that they were rather odd bedfellows. I was reminded of that series when Roger Mannell told me that he had met and spent some time with Josef Pieper back in 1981 when Pieper visited the University of Waterloo. This surprised me as I had read Pieper's ideas on leisure along with those of Plato and Aristotle and imagined him nearly as long gone. A young assistant professor at the time, Roger asked the aging German professor if events or experiences in the 30 or so years since finishing "Leisure: The Basis of Culture" (1952) had led him to reconsider the views he expressed there. Pieper's unadorned answer was "no." "I had the distinct impression that he thought his views were at least as relevant these days," Roger told me. The significance of that encounter has grown for me over the years as I have thought about the contribution of each to our field of leisure studies. We revere Pieper in some of our graduate classes on leisure theory and generally regard his Leisure as a "classic." But his emphasis on relaxation and receptivity seems to me to have had far less influence on research and practice in our field than has the work on concentrated effort, competence, and commitment in leisure that has been championed as optimal experience by Mannell along with Csikszentmihalyi, Stebbins, Iso-Ahola, Kelly and others. They have used different words, of course, but they have all taken a special interest in rather high intensity activity as being a source of satisfaction, self realization, and even a sense of community. Mannell, who demonstrated the connection between intense involvement and enjoyment experimentally (1980; Mannell and Bradley, 1986), also drew our attention ( 1993) to the similarity of a number of perspectives that demonstrate the significance and value of high investment, "serious" leisure (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Kelly, 1987; Stebbins, 1992). The only points of any real debate are why we don't have more of such experiences and how we can increase their frequency. Even the supposed deficiency of such ideas for capturing the social value of leisure seems to be addressed where these same authors demonstrate that sharing such activities contributes to relatedness, bonding, intimacy and an ethos of shared identity. For Pieper, in some contrast, leisure is to be found in an attitude of "non-activity" and receptivity: "Leisure is not the attitude of mind of those who actively intervene but of those who are open to everything; not of those who grab and grab hold, but of those who leave the reins loose and who are free and easy themselves" (1963 [1952] p.41) For Pieper leisure is completed in affirmation and celebration, but it is begun in being truly and abundantly relaxed. In contrast with idleness and boredom, as well as effort, it is comfort in just being. Pieper's conception of leisure seems even more elusive as we begin this new century. Being the productive society we are, we celebrate effort and value relaxation primarily for its role in recharging that effort. A more mature view sees the importance of relaxation for reflection and planning, for gaining the kind of perspective that leads to an effective change in direction, acceleration of efforts in some direction and deceleration of effort in others. But such considerations seem somehow to be recessed in our high speed, technologically-charged existence and rarely find their way into prescriptions for optimizing life's opportunities. Associating effort with work makes sense with respect to productivity, and it only remains to be demonstrated that productivity, life satisfaction and development are enhanced when relaxation is also integrated along the way. But it seems somehow ironic then that effort has also become the dominant ideology of leisure in contemporary society and central to our very understanding of what leisure is. …