Hobbies and Hobbyhorses

I am able to blog today because it is a public holiday here in Malaysia--the Prophet Muhammad's birthday, which is celebrated in many Muslim countries. This is a much welcome break for me--the second public holiday for the week. 

Malaysians are 'lucky' because, being multi-cultural and multi-religious, we have many public holidays. For Islamic-related holidays alone, we have five--the two major ones being the Hari Raya Aidil Fitri and Hari Raya Haji (Eid Al-Fitri and Eid Al-Adha), together with Nuzul Al-Quran (Muhammad's Revelation Day), Awal Muharam (New Year's day based on the Islamic calendar) and today's celebration of Maulud Nabi (Mawlid Al-Nabi). 

I'm not very good at taking leave from work. I'm happy that there are these public holidays which kind of force me to take a break. A healthier work-life balance is what I'm trying to cultivate. I walk every morning for an hour, but that comes at the price of a shortened sleep-time, which is something that I need to address too. I actually might have to abandon regular work altogether to be able to achieve the perfect balance...

My 'problem' is that I have too many areas of interests. Each one of them is a rabbit hole that, if pursued seriously, could consume an entire lifetime. Not only does each interest contend for my leisure time, they also eat into my living space. No matter where I live, my room is always cluttered with books. Even when I was living in a hotel for 2 years in Indonesia, my hotel room was also filled with books, much to the chagrin of housekeeping.

My current bedroom here in Subang Jaya is cluttered with computers, monitors and other computing accessories, and of course, books. In my Cyberjaya apartment, I have a digital piano, Denon amplifier and speakers, my old CDs, more abandoned computers and parts, a digital piano and the bulk of my book collection. I used to have a large Sun workstation monitor, which I have thankfully gotten rid of. 

I used to enjoy oil-painting during my teenage years, inspired by painters like Constable, Renoir, Monet and Michelangelo. But I am reluctant to revive that hobby for, again lack of time and space. I don't want my home to be cluttered with palettes, canvases, half-squeezed paint tubes and dirty brushes.  Every obsession or hobby consumes money, time and space. But hobbies seem to be my main objective in life--pursuing my various interests and obsessions, at the expense of a 'regular' life of a householder.

I avoided having a printer and have been able to get by without one. Recently I also acquired an e-Ink reader--not specifically for e-books--but for easier reading access to all the various PDF documents and papers that I have accumulated in my hard disks, without having to chop down more trees.

I used to enjoy digital photography too but I realised that is another rabbit hole, that's probably not worth a chunk of my lifetime. Video production should also be one of those things that interest me, because i love movies so much. But these days, I hardly go to the movies anymore; even Netflix streaming ones have become a rare luxury, which I can only enjoy at the expense of sleep.  

Audio books and podcasts are good alternative sources of knowledge and entertainment, but they still consume time and mental attention. Digital content has the advantage that they do not consume physical space, which I realise, is the major challenge in any kind of hobby. You can build a studio, library or workshop to pursue all your hobbies serious, but every kind of workspace requires housekeeping and maintenance, which is always a drag.

I have a large collection of fountain pens--another hobby which I allow myself to indulge in, because pens, thankfully do not consume that much storage space. And my excuse for permitting myself this luxury is that pens have utility value: I use them to write in my journals and notebooks (which also clutter my room). Maybe one day I'll blog about my favourite fountain pens, and my equally large collection of inks!

I've also mentioned before, part tongue-in-cheek, part in exasperation, that religion should be treated as a hobby.  In my case, this is literally true, religion and spirituality is a huge area of interest, not unlike painting or music. I have a great desire to understand the philosophy, psychology and history of religion.  As one can see from topic of many of my blog articles, religion is indeed a hobbyhorse of mine.

With so many interesting hobbies to pursue in life, how could anyone be bored? If work itself, is also a hobby, then this subject of work-life balance will never come up. Thomas Alva Edison famously said: “I never did a day’s work in my life, it was all fun.” Yes, let's all work on our hobbies, and have fun.