Painting as a Pastime

A gifted American psychologist has said, ‘Worry is a spasm of the emotion; the mind
catches hold of something and will not let it go.’ It is useless to argue with the mind in
this condition. The stronger the will, the more futile the task. One can only gently
insinuate something else into its convulsive grasp. And if this something else is rightly
chosen, if it is really attended by the illumination of another field of interest, gradually,
and often quite swiftly, the old undue grip relaxes and the process of recuperation and
repair begins.

The cultivation of a hobby and new forms of interest is therefore a policy of first
importance to a public man. But this is not a business that can be undertaken in a day or
swiftly improvised by a mere command of the will. The growth of alternative mental
interests is a long process. The seeds must be carefully chosen; they must fall on good
ground; they must be sedulously tended, if the vivifying fruits are to be at hand when
needed.

To be really happy and really safe, on e ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and
they must all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say: ‘I will take an interest in this
or that.’ Such an attempt only aggravates the strain of mental effort. A man may acquire
great knowledge of topics unconnected with his daily work, and yet hardly get any
benefit or relief. It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do.
Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those who are toiled
to death, those who are worried to death, and those who are bored to death. It is no use
offering the manual labourer, tired out with a hard week’s sweat and effort, the chance of
playing a game of football or baseball on Saturday afternoon. It is no use inviting the
politician or the professional or business man, who has been working or worrying about
serious things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at the week-end.

As for the unfortunate people who can command everything they want, who can gratify
every caprice and lay their hands on almost every object of desire for them a new
pleasure, a new excitement is only an additional satiation. In vain they rush frantically
round from place to place, trying to escape from avenging boredom by mere clatter and
motion. For them discipline in one form or another is the most hopeful path.

It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are divided into two
classes: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure; and secondly,
those whose work and pleasure are one. Of these the former are the majority. They have
their compensations. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their
reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its
simplest and most modest forms. But Fortune’s favoured children belong to the second
class. Their life is a natural harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough.
Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays when they come are grudged as enforced
interruptions in an absorbing vocation. Yet to both classes the need of an alternative
outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential. Indeed it may
well be that those whose work is their pleasure are those who most need the means of
banishing it at intervals from their minds.

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很喜欢邱吉尔这一篇。人吃饱了饭,怎样生活是很重要的,孔子有礼乐,西洋有
礼拜堂,邱吉尔却说至少要有两个真正独立的兴趣爱好!

是谁说过:不会休息的人就不会工作。我以为不止工作,不会休息的人根本就不
会生活。很喜欢这几句:
:
The seeds must be carefully chosen; they must fall on good ground;
they must be sedulously tended, if the vivifying fruits are to be
at hand when needed.
:
To be really happy and really safe, on e ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real.
:
As for the unfortunate people who can ... For them discipline in
one form or another is the most hopeful path.