“Those who cannot find time for fun are sooner or later forced to find time for illness” (John Wanamaker).
Without enough “entertainment” of the right kind, we lose our ability to serve and contribute to others. It’s a good thing to devote ourselves to good works that benefit those around us, but we don’t have an unlimited supply of energy and motivation. These things have to be replenished on a fairly regular basis, and if we don’t take care of them, we get sick and die.
Perhaps it would help us to consider the meaning of “entertainment.” As the spelling of the word indicates, recreation is the “re-creation” of oneself. When we are tired, entertainment is what “brings us back.” It refreshes us, sends us back to our work refreshed.
But although the above sounds simple, it involves a serious consideration. These days, much of what passes for entertainment is refreshing. Sometimes we pursue it with such crazy passion that it leaves us more exhausted than when we started. But clearly, even in moderation, some of the things we call entertainment today are destructive. They drag us down the drain of human experience and leave us not uplifted and energized, but weakened and humiliated.
Thoughtful observers have long argued that there is a connection between entertainment and character, both on the individual level and the level of society, and I, for one, agree with Lin Yutang’s statement: “We do not know a nation until we know the pleasures of its life, just as we do not know a man until we know how he spends his leisure. It is when a man stops doing the things he has to do and the things he should do. Likes, he does, that character is revealed. It is when the oppression of society and business is gone and when the limitations of money, fame and ambition are lifted, that we are able to see the inner man, his true nature.
The irony is that we defend our recreational imbalance as an attempt to “enrich” our experience in the world. Yet promotion occurs only up to a certain point, after which the law of diminishing returns applies. Whether it’s unrelieved work or unworthy entertainment, what we get back is not enrichment – it is impoverishment.
“It’s a poor life, full of cares, We have no time to stand and stare” (William Henry Davis).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com AreYouaChristian.com
