Work and Pleasure

To be really happy and really safe, one 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 being 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 laborer, 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 weekend.

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 favored 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 vacation. 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.


工作和娛樂

要想真正生活得幸福和平安，一個人至少應該有兩三種業余愛好，而且必須是真正的愛好。到了晚年才開始說“我要培養這個或那個興趣”是毫無用處的，種這種嘗試只會增加精神上的負擔。在與自己日常工作無關的領域中，一個人可以獲得淵博的知識，但卻很難有所收益或得到放松。做自己喜歡的事是無益的，你得喜歡自己所做的事。廣言之，人可以分為三個類別：勞累而死的人，憂慮而死的人和無聊而死的人。對于那些體力勞動者來說，一周辛苦的工作使他們精疾力竭，因此在周六下午給他們提供踢足球或者打棒球的機會是沒有意義的。對于政界人士，專業人士或者商人來說，他們已經為棘手的事務操勞或者煩惱了六天，因此在周末請他們為瑣事勞神同樣毫無意義。

或者可以這么說，理智的，勤奮的，有用的人可以分為兩類：對第一類人而言，工作就是工作，娛樂就是娛樂；對于第二類人而言，工作和娛樂是合二為一的。很大一部分人屬于前者。他們可以得到相應的補償。在辦公室或工廠里長時間的工作，不僅帶給他們維持生計的金錢，還帶給他們一種渴求娛樂的強烈欲望，哪怕這種娛樂消遣是以最簡單，最淳樸的方式進行的。而第二類人則是命運的寵兒。他們的生活自然而和諧。在他們看來，工作時間永遠不夠多，每天都是假期；而當正常的假日到來時，他們總會抱怨自己有趣的休假被強行中斷。然而，有一些東西對于這兩類人來說都十分必要，那就是變換一下視角，改變一下氛圍，嘗試做點不同的事情。事實上，那些把工作看作娛樂的人可能是需要以某種方式將工作不時地驅趕出自己的大腦。