Cost of Leisure

I read somewhere of a French gentleman, living on the beachfront in Normandy, who required his children and grandchildren to bring back a sack of seaweed for his garden each time they went to the beach. No pleasure without accompanying industry. It was not declared in the article that he compelled his friends to do likewise! It is possible that he ended up having few friends and distant issue as well. Over the years, I had taken a leaf from this man's book and endeavored where possible, never myself to take or do something to the right of me at point B, without doubling up by bringing something back to the left of me to point A. Work on the way down and work of a new nature on the way back; or leisure on the way down and leisure on the way back; or a combination of both! Trying to never waste a moment myself, either at play or work! Programming! Wasted moments and leisure may have much more in common than we realize! One of the things they have in common is that they are both defined by those who have little of either! Work and play may also have much in common for the fortunate who may not be able to differentiate between them! I wish I had composted the Frenchman's leaf in my earlier days rather than seen it as an opportunity. Now that I am older, walking in a room to forget what the Hell I am Hereafter is not Heaven! I don't want to leave it too long without a conclusion! Whether it is better in the mind's eye to engage in this sort of work cycle for a shorter working life, and then move to complete leisure for the balance, is moot! I can't judge. I suspect that a happy balance through one's life, and clear lines of definition, and a willingness not to impose your ideas on others, is a suitable choice. Living in the present, not the future, is hard. Reality says the future is nowhere! This balance applied now gives autonomy to you and everyone you love!