That is the subject of Stephen T. Asma's essay today in the NY-Times. Personally, I find my life more enjoyable when I can drop all pretense of productivity and do things for their own sake. Below is an excerpt:
"The stakes for play are higher than we think. Play is a way of beingthat resists the instrumental, expedient mode of existence. In play, we do not measure ourselves in terms of tangible productivity (extrinsic value), but instead, our physical and mental lives have intrinsic value of their own. It provides the source from which other extrinsic goods flow and eventually return.
When we see an activity like music as merely a “key to success,” we shortchange it and ourselves. Playing a musical instrument is both the pursuit of fulfillment and the very thing itself (the actualizing of potential). Playing, or even listening, in this case, is a kind of unique, embodied contemplation that can feed both the mind and the body."
The full piece can be read
here.
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