Saturday, July 12, 2025
Leisure means free time. I have to pause and wonder what’s unfree time? No matter what you’re doing, either you’re free or not. “Want to come to my house?” “I’m not free. I’m tied up.” But where are the handcuffs, ropes, and shackles?
How is time “spent?” How is attention “paid?” Spending time and paying attention are funny ways of saying there’s a cost to existence. The only time is now, freely replenished eternally. Attentiveness is focused, freely acute, now. Inattentiveness seems costly. Being tied up seems costly. But what does that even cost you? Inattentiveness is free. Being tied up is free.
The root of leisure is Latin licere ‘be allowed’. Does the present moment need you? In a manner of speaking. You and the present moment depend entirely upon each other. Seems audacious that I should permit it. But it also permits you.
You are always allowed. And you are allowing. Never shall the union be broken. You’ve freely chosen to work, or to be wherever you are. You’re free in that chosen moment. When you say, “I’m tied up,” it means you can’t be in two places at once. Isn’t that a given?
You’re allowed to come and go from the present moment. But which one feels more real? Past, future, or present?
I’m free to be here and now, to focus intently. I’m free to be me. The alternatives bind – not free, not present, not me. Do I freely roam in the past or future? Kind of, but that ties you up and puts you in two locations at once; however, you are technically not able to leave. Am I shackled to the present, to who I am, and what’s in my immediacy. Yes, and noticing the unshackled nature of truth frees me from the forgery of being “tied up.”