He’d like to give an enlightening definition of : the concept of leisure, but he’s too busy dining
With the Los Angeles Times Magazine taking a holiday today, Jack Smith returns to View, his Monday-through-Thursday home, for a rare Sunday visit.
Recently I noted that John Robinson, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, had completed a 20-year study of leisure in which he found that the French had less leisure than any other people in 11 Western nations in the survey.
I pointed out that Prof. Robinson’s conclusions were flawed by the fallacy of his definition of leisure. He did not consider either eating or sex as a leisure occupation.
I don’t see how any sociologist could deny that when the French are enjoying a meal or sex, they are at leisure.
Now Hilmi Ibrahim, a professor of recreation at Whittier College, writes to say, “I agree with you that French meals are leisurely and would argue that American meals are becoming increasingly so.”
Prof. Ibrahim is writing a book on comparative leisure, and is using some of Robinson’s work.
“We have been trying for years,” he admits, “to come to an agreement on a definition of leisure. My best effort (is) the following:
“Leisure is a state of mind which allows one to either contemplate life’s conditions or to participate in certain activities during free time. While it is possible to empirically validate free time, and to observe the activities, it is the state of mind that does not lend itself to external verification. Thus leisure (is) a personal matter.”
Ibrahim notes that in a study on leisure among contemporary Egyptians he found that Egyptians spend 20 minutes a day at their prayers, which had not been considered as leisure in previous studies.
I don’t know about prayer. It doesn’t seem to me to have the same quality as eating and sex. If one prays out of a sense of religious duty, how can it be categorized as leisure? On the other hand, for the devout, the state of mind during prayer may be ecstatic, thus, certainly, constituting leisure of the highest and purest sort.
Ibrahim encloses a paper of his called “Gastronomy: The New American Pastime,” in which he defines both eating out and gourmet cooking as leisure activities.
That these two activities are rapidly claiming more of American’s leisure time is evident, he says, in the reported increase in our median weight.
“Dining out is probably the main facet of this new American pastime,” he wrote, “and it is not limited to the privileged few as it was in the past.” He points out that dining has been an important leisure activity throughout history.
A papyrus dated 3000 BC includes an invitation to a banquet at which the menu was barley porridge, quail, kidneys, pigeon stew, fish, ribs of beef, honey cake, and the cherry-like fruit of the Siddar tree.
Guests, both men and women, were scrubbed, anointed, scented and beflowered before entering the dining hall, where wine and music enhanced the pleasure of the meal.
In Greece, Rome and medieval Europe, alas, men and women no longer ate together.
At Greek banquets wives stayed home, but flute girls, dancers and prostitutes entertained while the men ate and drank; then the men drank and talked--thus the famous Greek symposia.
The Romans dined on couches, entertained by clowns, mimes, gymnasts, dancers and gladiators. So much food was consumed that between courses, diners visited the vomitoria.
Medieval banquets took on a stately function with the signing of treaties and conjugal arrangements. Sugar having recently become popular, the menu was laden with sweets.
But Catherine de Medici, the Italian queen of France, introduced edible and predictable courses of soup, fish, flesh and sweet dessert. Ibrahim observes: “The Western World still echoes her taste.”
Elizabeth I served not only a feast but a circus. Live birds, frogs, hares, terriers and sometimes dwarfs emerged from the pastries. Obviously, says Ibrahim, this was the forerunner of the macho American custom of hiring a nude female to rise from a banquet cake.
It was not until the 16th Century in England that inns and taverns began to serve fixed-price meals at a common table. They were called “ordinaries.” In 1765 an establishment in Paris served a light dish as a restorative. Thus, restaurant , past participle of restaurer .
Partly because of our Puritan origins, earlier Americans rarely dined out. Though my father occasionally took us out to dinner, I remember meals at home as being simple and bleak. There was no wine and very little conversation; only the clink of flatware on plates and the solemn chewing. (I think my father usually had a nip in the kitchen before he sat down.)
Americans not only are frequenting restaurants, Ibrahim notes, but they’re also going in for cooking as a pastime, if not an art. It is not only important for the host to serve exotic and exciting dishes, but also to stimulate good talk about the food and drink.
No doubt eating is a leisure activity; at least for the idle rich.
