Hobbies

Hobby is defined as "An activity or interest pursued outside one's regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure." What are you hobbies? I'm afraid I have none, or at least none I am good at doing so that removes the pleasure portion of having a hobby of ones own. 

I enjoy cooking and do it almost daily. But I don't consider it it a hobby, I consider it a way to eat well and save tons of money by not eating out. There was also a rumor circulating that the way to man's heart was through his stomach, I've yet to decide on that one. I am good at it though so maybe I should consider it a hobby so I don't feel so hobbieless. 

Last Friday was a vacation day for me so I signed up for a one day photography workshop. I have an awesome digital DSLR and several lenses that I don't know how to use to make pretty pictures. The more photographs I take the more I am starting to realized Ansel Adams really had some talent in the darkroom department. When I view photographs that look effortless in their composition and execution I get jealous. How on earth did that person get that lighting and that movement at the same time all the while adjusting f-stops and shutter speeds for the perfect photo? When I have that figured out it could be in the front running for a hobby.

Training? Not really a hobby and I don't think I engage in training/racing for pleasure because most of the time it hurts like hell. Also, I'm not really good at it. Does something become a hobby when you spend countess hours each week practicing at it? Does something become a hobby when you plan and arrange your life around it? Does something become a hobby when you lie awake at night thinking about how to save more money to buy that tri bike? Does something become a hobby when you pay good money to a man to plan out workouts for you? 

Maybe the pleasure of a hobby comes in knowing you have done everything you could do on that day, for that race, for that moment. Maybe it comes in the feeling you get after you run hill repeats, not the feeling of wanting to puke, rather the feeling of success in leaving everything you had in you out on that hill. Maybe it comes in worrying if I'm doing enough today to do as well as I want to in June. Maybe it never comes at all. 

 Hobbies are overrated.