play-time

MONDAY.
Back to work.
a book entitled Waiting for the Weekend
written by Witold Rybczynski
-- he studied the history of leisure time, and then told us about it --
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I'm always charmed by old photographs of skiers that show groups of people in what appear to be street clothes, with uncomplicated pieces of bent wood strapped to sturdy walking boots. These men and women have a playful and unaffected air. Today every novice is caparisoned in skintight spandex like an Olympic racer, and even cross-country skiing, a simple enough pastime, has been infected by a preoccupation with correct dress, authentic terminology, and up-to-date equipment. This reflects a concern for status and consumption, but it also suggests an attitude to play that is different from what it was in the past. Most outdoor sports, once simply muddled through, are now undertaken with a high degree of seriousness. "Professional" used to be a word that distinguished someone who was paid for performing an activity from the sportsman; today the word has increasingly come to denote anyone with a high degree of proficiency; "professional-quality" equipment is available to -- and desired by -- all. Conversely, "amateur," a wonderful word literally meaning "lover," has been degraded to mean a rank beginner, or anyone without a certain level of skill. "Just an amateur," we say; it is not, as it once was, a compliment.
--------------------[end Excerpt]

This part cracked me up:
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[excerpt]: ...Leisure was also a way of asserting status in a public way -- hence the popularity of such pastimes as fox hunting and shooting, which by law and custom were unavailable to ordinary people. [this is 19th Century England] The pastime of yachting, which grew in popularity during the first half of the nineteenth century, was ideally suited to conspicuous consumption. It was expensive, hence exclusive. The yachtsman could distance himself from the crowd simply by sailing out into the middle of a lake -- there as no need for fences or enclosures. At the same time, it was -- and remains -- a gratifying opportunity to be seen, admired, and envied by the plebeians on the shore.
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