Haben Sie ein hobby?

My German may be a bit schmutzed up there.  It's an old line from a first year German reader at good old Willamette U.  Translation: Do you have a hobby?

The other evening Ev and I were out riding bikes at the airport when he spied a man working on something outside his hangar.  In as much as Evan was the leader of our expedition he insisted we go check it out.  What we found was a man who looked to be in his late forties working on a large red radio controlled (RC) airplane.  That is one of those airplanes that, although only 1/20th or so the size of a real airplane, flies and performs at altitude just like the real deal, no strings attached.

Once Evan had broken the ice (one real asset to having a 4 year-old at hand-- most people love 'em) the man and I started to talk about his airplane and radio controlled flight.  It turns out he also had a real airplane in the hangar behind him but he found more joy in flying the model, something he had been doing for 20 plus years.  He also relayed the fact that the number of people flying RC airplanes is falling off substantially.  It seems most people today, especially kids and teens, prefer recreational software to the hobbyist's hardware.

I'm not surprised by this.  I remember flipping through the Chicago Yellow Pages a few years back.  The listings for hobby shops took up all of 2, maybe 3, pages.  Escorts took about 10, doctors about 30 and lawyers about 45.  Rough estimate but I think the proportions are correct.

The sad thing is, even though the internet and one's computer can offer oodles of entertainment options, I fear many of the popular choices don't offer anything in the way of real engagement.  Too many of the activities people spend their time on these days are distractions, recreational masturbation, if you will.

If the opportunity arises I tell patients and young people they should find a hobby.  I think it's as important as physical exercise and perhaps even more so. A hobby engages your mind, requires you to do work, mental and often physical as well, and leaves you satisfied with progress-- even when you can't find all the pieces, make the thing go, or put it all together.  Most of the happy old people I see have hobbies: painting, scrap booking, restoring old cars or tractors, quilting, photography. The unhappy ones sit with their memories and long for the past. Loneliness plus boredom equals depression, a catastrophic equation at any age.

Think about finding an answer to the question above.  If you haven't one already, finding one will do you good.