Although they would never consider their assistance as charity or use it to purposely make me feel dependent on them, is that living and surviving on my part? They know I work 40-50 hours a week, go "without" life's little extras at times, try to support myself to the best of my ability, all the while completing my education in order to attain a higher paying career, so they in-turn feel I am a good "investment" and truly appreciate all that they do for me. .
Zelinski's book highlights some very important and wise ideas regarding my situation. In today's times, we work and we work and we work, and then we come home to work some more, whether, it be taking care of the house or going straight to school from work. Seldom do we just come home and smell the roses. Seldom do we take the time to just sit down and not think about something we should be cleaning or something that we need to be doing. We need "leisure" time in order to be happy. We need this leisure time in order to be more productive at work and to be happier with our lives in general. Webster's definition of "leisure" as "free, unoccupied time during which a person may indulge in rest, recreation, etc." I would describe leisure time as a time when I don't have to work, whether it is school homework or housework. Zelinski quotes a study done by the United States Department of Commerce, "Only 58 percent of people were experiencing a great deal of satisfaction from how they spend their leisure time." This means "42 percent of individuals could use substantial help in enhancing the quality in their leisure." So, according to Zelinski, we need to "work at" learning how to enjoy our leisure time, a paradox, seeing that leisure is about not working!.
According to Zelinski, "The Protestant Work Ethic Ruined a Good Thing." With the emergence of the protestant work ethic, leisure time became a time for us to recover in order to better function at work, not purely to rejuvenate ourselves spiritually and mentally for the purpose solely of our physical and mental well-being.
