What Is True Leisure?

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You breathe a sigh of relief: “At last.” The obligations of the day are done. The last report submitted, the last email sent, the last dish washed. The work of the day is completed. Now the question arises: “What do I do now?”

Many people consider the important part of the day over by this point, and the remaining hours are simply a rest period, “leisure time.” Often, when we think of leisure, we picture kicking back in an armchair to watch some TV, or hitting the links for an afternoon round of golf. We think of leisure time as a time for relaxation and recreation.

Yet this is not how leisure was traditionally understood. Philosophers as far back as Aristotle understood that leisure—“free time”—is not just a break in which to mindlessly amuse ourselves and recuperate so we can get back to the “real work” of life.

But if leisure isn’t mere recreation, mere time-killing, mere resting so we can resume work, then what is it?

True Meaning of Leisure

Leisure is what human life is all about. As Zena Hitz, writer and tutor at St. John’s College, writes:, “The leisure that is necessary for human beings is not just a break from real life, a place where we rest and restore ourselves in order to go back to work. What we are after is a state that looks like the culmination of a life.” A culmination is a conclusion, a goal, a climax—it is the end (as in “purpose”) of everything that builds up to it. So if leisure is the purpose of all our other efforts, then it must be, in some sense, the very thing that human life is for, the very thing that makes us human.

Ms. Hitz echoes here the ideas of philosopher Josef Pieper, who in turn draws on the Aristotelian philosophical tradition, the heritage of the West. In his seminal work “Leisure: The Basis of Culture,” Mr. Pieper defines leisure as “an attitude of contemplative ‘celebration.’”

At first blush, that rather dry, intellectual definition might sound like a bit of a let-down and not at all the “culmination” of our lives, but bear with me a bit longer.

By this definition, Mr. Pieper means that a truly leisurely activity is one in which we use our human capacity for wonder, reflection, gratitude, and love. It is a process of being fully present in the moment, in touch with the reality around us, and delighting in it. We gaze at the good things (and people) around us, and we love them, and we celebrate them. This may not be so hard to grasp: Most of us would agree that knowing and loving another human being is more important than filling our bank account through work. While work can be incredibly important and ennobling, of course, Mr. Pieper would agree with Ms. Hitz that rather than having leisure for the sake of work, we should ultimately work for the sake of leisure.

Activity Versus Inactivity

The traditional idea that the pinnacle of human leisure lies in contemplation can be off-putting to some people, but this may come from a misconception about what this contemplation really means. It’s important to remember, I think, that the idea of “contemplative activities” encompasses a very wide range of human actions and states of being. We shouldn’t fixate on the image of someone sitting in a corner somewhere philosophizing about abstract concepts (although that certainly can be a truly leisurely activity).

Let’s take something much more common. One could garden in a contemplative and leisurely way, for example, taking in the sights, the smells, and the feel of the dirt, and wondering how all this came to be—the intricate work of the microbes, and the mind-blowing process of photosynthesis—and finding joy in that. An engaging conversation about the things that really matter in life, the big questions, conducted with people you love, would certainly be a leisurely activity. A silent walk through the woods, hand in hand with your spouse, could be leisure.

In one passage of his book, Mr. Pieper helps us expand our vision of what contemplative, leisurely activity can look like: “When we really let our minds rest contemplatively on a rose in bud, on a child at play, on a divine mystery, we are rested and quickened as though by a dreamless sleep. It is in these silent and receptive moments that the soul of man is sometimes visited by an awareness of what holds the world together.”

In one of his other works, “Only the Lover Sings,” he writes, “Anybody can ponder human deeds and happenings and thus gaze into the unfathomable depths of destiny and history; anybody can get absorbed in the contemplation of a rose or human face and thus touch the mystery of creation.”

Little Things With Great Enjoyment

We can see broad avenues open before us here: history, art, poetry, friendship, outdoor activities, family time, and festive parties; even certain kinds of physical work can all be avenues to the joyful “contemplation” that Mr. Pieper presents to us as the soul of leisure, if animated by a spirit of interior quiet, presence, reflection, and gratitude.

Moreover, our reflecting on the goodness and beauty in the world flowers in celebration—through art, community, family, and, ultimately, religion—and this is the full meaning of leisure: “contemplative celebration.” Mr. Pieper writes, “It could be said that the heart of leisure consists in ‘festival.’ ”

Even those of us who don’t consider ourselves “intellectual” can see the appeal of a celebration, such as a wedding feast, and how it constitutes a kind of climax of human life. There are few experiences so fulfilling as when people come together in community to celebrate something integrally good, such as a marriage. Most of us have experienced the peculiar joy of such an occasion at one time or another.

Historically, celebration—particularly worship—formed the impetus for all true art and culture. This is because a work of art is an artist’s attempt to capture and imitate something in the world that he has considered and loved—he wants to celebrate it. A spirit of celebration undergirds great art, music, literature, architecture, and so on. This is why Mr. Pieper says that “one of the foundations of Western culture is leisure.”

In fact, it is so fundamental to culture that it produces and preserves much of what we hold dear. “Leisure, it must be remembered, is not a Sunday afternoon idyll, but the preserve of freedom, of education and culture, and of that undiminished humanity which views the world as a whole,” Mr. Pieper says.

One way to hold on to these institutions we want to preserve—freedom, education, culture, and fulfillment in our individual lives—might be through cultivating a spirit of leisure.