Through the ages, people have developed all kinds of activities to keep them occupied. Early man, of course, did not have much more options to make IT through the day other than eating, hunting or gathering, and sleeping (but even so, maybe he was a lot happier than modern-day man, with his obsession for money and financial success), but nowadays we can choose between thousands of pastimes as a hobby.

Sports, reading, acting, painting, watching movies, gaming, DIY, writing, gardening – you name it…

Most people have, however, outside their day jobs, other things they like or need to do, and this is what we usually call a hobby. And we see some hobbies in a less favorable light, don’t we…

Job or hobby?

This is a little bit strange. Why would we call an activity that is paid (but not all that useful) a job and the thing you do in your spare time a hobby? Because maybe, actually the thing you do in your spare time, your so-called “hobby”, might be in the end the most valuable. After all, the man we now know as Le Douanier Rousseau earned a living as a border guard, but made some of the best ( and today pretty expensive) paintings of the nineteenth century. As a hobby…

It has something to do with our appreciation of an activity. If a housewife cleans the room, it’s a chore, if a man cleans an office, suddenly it is a career. The same with a woman cooking for her family, and the chef in a restaurant.

Because it is a paid job, we hold it in higher esteem. And that’s because we, in the modern world, know only the value of money, not the value of people or what they do.

Judgemental society?

We also distinguish between occupations in a weird way. If we meet someone who says he is an engineer, we kind of automatically assume his contribution to society is more valuable than that of a cartoonist- and we express this opinion in a better paycheck. But some engineers have built some really crappy, and dangerous bridges and apartment buildings- while no cartoonist ever killed someone. At least, not with his drawings… Here is an interesting post about this topic: Judgemental Society And Its Effects

So maybe it is about time to let go of some old-fashioned judgments. After all, the mother who cooks at home and the chef in a five-star restaurant use the same ingredients. Let us show a bit more appreciation to the mums then, shall we?

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