Wholesome Leisure vs. Junk Leisure

I hope you don’t mind that we snuck a “parenting” into the merit badge workbook this summer (Until the Streetlights Come On by Ginny Yurich). There is a lot of merit in this book for anyone who decides to read it, parent or not.

The whole book is good but the chapter “Bored to Tears: Uncover the Gifts That Boredom Gives” is particularly good. The point it makes is actually one of the cornerstones of The Proper Mountain Woman Club.

We must control the margins of our days and not allow them to be filled with empty distractions.

Ginny, the founder of 1000 Hours Outside, writes: “Outside of your routine is where you extend your life.”

We as proper mountain women are trying to amplify our time and our lives. We look for small variations in our daily rhythms and routines that give us  more magic, more memories, more experience, and ultimately, a more abundant life.

And a lot of that happens in the margins.

When we fiercely protect those margins for hearty, wholesome leisure instead of automatically filling them with our phones, life starts to feel bigger.

On Labor Day I let my 8-year old son play video games all day instead of fighting him to come out and join us in the yard. At the end of the day he cried because of all the time he wasted.

I hope it was a little life lesson for him.

Because there is a difference between hearty leisure and junk leisure. You feel so different after both kinds.

Hearty leisure is sitting outside talking with friends, play frisbee with your family, going for a walk, drawing hopscotch on the sidewalk, needlepointing in the sunshine, lying in a hammock thinking, playing a round of cards, and reading before bed.

Junk leisure is scrolling for an hour without meaning to, binge-watching something you don’t even particularly like, and playing video games long past the point that they’re actually fun.

One requires a little intention and effort, the other is incredibly easy to consume.

There’s hearty wholesome leisure… like sitting outside with friends and talking, going for walks, drawing hopscotch on the sidewalk, needlepointing in the sunshine, simply laying in a hammock and thinking, playing a round of cards, reading before bed.

And there’s junk leisure… video games, doom scrolling, and binge watching tv.

The first is more intentional and more effort. The second is easier. Just like with whole foods and junk foods.

“It’s human nature to take the easy route and to conserve resources. The history of our species compels us to live this way. Yet passivity offers us very little. The reward of having nothing to do, of having time to slouch on the couch for hours of binge-watching, glints at us like a diamond in a creek bed. But escapism is a false hope. The rewards we seek in this manner rarely pan out. We squander opportunity after opportunity when we constantly return to consuming content rather than experiencing the grand payout of the kinds of activities that challenge us, lead us to in-depth social relationships, and help us to become better people in the long term.”

That quote from the book deserves an underline from me. Proper Mountain Women believe in challenges and becoming better people in the long term. And earning merit badges is a great wonderful tool that helps to FIERCELY protect these wholesome leisure activities we need every day.