Spending Free Time

Today I've only given myself 45 minutes to complete this. I don't know why I do this to myself. I'm off on Friday, I could wait until then, but as I mentioned before, who knows what Friday will bring? I want to get into the habit of having a set time, and a set day to do this. But now I fear that I'll have to leave before I finish, which would kind of defeat the whole purpose of letting it stream. That's okay, I'll figure it out. I just always feel like when I'm rushed, getting it done becomes more important than content. I eventually want to have decent content. I really do have things I'd like to share. It's also kind of disappointing because one of the reasons I'm getting started a little late is YouTube! I go on there to select my album for the week, and I got caught up in watching something that could have waited. I know it could have waited. I knew at the time, it could have waited. But something, somewhere, inside me, said I might not be able to find it later. I realize, as I write this, that the idea of not being able to find it later is a bit ridiculous. However, I don't really go on to YouTube to “look” for stuff, other than albums to listen to. Which, in itself, may seem a bit strange, that I go on a video site to listen to music. But, I do, and that's all I have to say about that. I don't want to go back on YouTube and look for some novelty that just happened to pop up while I was there. To me the fact that it popped up while I was there, is the reason to watch it, right then. What's 4 minutes anyway? Yeah right!

That has got me thinking about the book I'm reading right now. I'm an avid reader. I usually read Non-fiction, but I've read all of the Non-fiction books in my home. I feel it's important for me to vary my experiences, so I'll read Fiction occasionally. I think it's important to read the classics, especially when they're sitting at an arms reach. Just like YouTube, I probably wouldn't go search them out, but if they're right there, and I need something to read, I'll take the time. I also think it's important to, sometimes, do things that you don't necessarily like, just to make sure you don't like it. Or, perhaps, to keep you from limiting yourself from an otherwise worthwhile experience. I normally don't do this, because I don't see this as an advertisement, but for this story, I feel it's important that you know, the book I am currently reading is Pride and Prejudice. As I said, I don't usually read Fiction. And I most certainly do not usually read love stories, but this one is having an effect on me, in an unusual way. For the most part, I find it dribble. It seems like typical love story fluff. I'm not really enjoying the story that much at all. However, I keep thinking about it. I've found myself in the past week, referencing it in at least 3 different conversations, and now I'm telling you about it. It's bizarre that this thing I don't really care too much for is staking a claim in my mind, which, incidentally, is one of the subplots of this book. See, I can't shake it! I will add though, in my own defense, this was my only plot reference.

I suppose that's what makes it a classic. People have been reading it for years. It's obviously had a tremendous effect on many people, no doubt inspiring an endless amount of creative people. However, I find myself most fascinated about the time frame from which it came, as opposed to the actual story that is being presented. It was written around the same time as the American Revolution, so for all practical purposes, a long time ago. Although, compared to a lot of the books I read, not that long ago at all. The thing that I'm getting from this though, was the lack of things to do. Without going into too much detail, these were people of sufficient means, and apparently lots of free time. They don't need to farm, they don't need to work, they are leisurely. The piano had just been invented! They couldn't listen to music, unless one of them played it. There was nothing to watch, unless one of them acted it out. I'm trying to cram all of this crap into a few minutes, and to them, a few minutes was nothing. They had all day! No cars, no phones, no electricity, nothing. It was technically just over 200 years ago. And really, if you think about it, that probably didn't change too much until about 100 years ago. Nothing to do with your free time, except read, write, play games, make music yourself, act out your own scenes, and commune with others. And I guess the fascinating part is, to me, that those are the same exact things that I do when I have free time, even though I have a lot of other options.

Daughn