Spare Time

Apr 29, 2008 - 09:42 AM PST

In a recent job application, I was asked, "What do you like to do with your spare time?" The application also says, "be creative and remember that there are no right or wrong answers!"

This is what I said:

(a) Spare time. What a novel idea, as if time could be spared or saved up for some future date. But alas, that time does not exist. I have no bottle in which to capture time, no bottle that can make it go forwards or backwards. Instead, I find time in which I do that which I choose, outside of that which is expected of me.

During this time, my time, I do what fills my heart and soul. I play soccer. I listen to music. I spend time with friends. I go to temple. I write poetry. I read. I work on my Bezos School Award, building an Interfaith Program at my high school, Boston Latin Academy. I pray. Then, sometimes, I do nothing.

Perhaps that is a miss-statement. I choose not to do. Rather, I sit in the ebb and flow of time and space, existing without the need to do. I take time to just be. Call it seeking nirvana if you like, but I just call it existing in this world, experiencing it in all its fullness, hoping to find peace in the here and now. For is that not the essence of spare time? Time that can be expended without a tangible reward?