MY IDEA OF A WELL-SPENT DAY

MY IDEA OF A WELL-SPENT DAY

Outline:

1.      Great variety of answers possible.

2.      Some think of themselves, others think of other people.

3.      My own idea is that a day is well-spent which has had good work, good play, and good rest.

4.      The answer will depend on what one thinks to be the true purpose of life.

There is an old Latin proverb, “Quot hominess, tot sententiae”. The meaning of this is, “From so many men, there will be so many opinions.” People are pursuing different objects, and there are many various ideas as to what things are worthwhile. The rich man may think that a day has been well spent in which he adds to his already great wealth. The poor man returning from the fields may be happy in the sense of having finished his toil and looking forward to an evening’s rest. The social worker will be pleased with a day in which he has managed to raise the status and brighten the lives of a number of poor people. There will be an endless variety of ideas on how time should be well spent.

As an average individual, I have a number of different interests. When I am in the class-room, I like to work as well as I can and to profit from the lessons. After school hours, I like to play cricket and hockey in their seasons, and it gives me pleasure to take part in a good game. The rest of the evening is usually spent in some activity such as a debate, a drama, or in some hobby. My hobby is fretwork at present. If I feel that the day’s work in class has been good, that I have played well in time the hockey game, win or lose, and derived some pleasure from speaking in a debate or listening to dramatic rehearsals, then I feel that the day has been well spent and I go to bed happy. A certain humorous writer in England once made up a rhyme about the ideal of the British workman:

“Eight hours work, eight hours play, eight hours sleep, and eight shilling a day.”

and, ignoring the fact that the same worker now gets much more than eight shillings every day, the lines express the desire for a balanced life, in which work, recreation, rest and physical comforts are all present.

But man is a restless animal and his intellect always spurs him higher and higher. What satisfies us in youth will be insufficient in later years, and the answer to this question depends on the individual.