Hello there! 👋
I asked a bunch of my friends “What are you into these days? Or, if you had the resources, what would you like to get into?” It actually kicked off a deep conversation with branching lines of inquiry about how to judge the value of doing a thing, aligning hobbies to your personal politics and values, and whether or not one should find meaning in work. Effectively, we were having a discussion about eudaimonia.
Many of my friends and people I follow online make things. They are woodworkers, painters, musicians, gardeners, sailors, hackers building crazy custom keyboards or low-power permacomputing operating systems, or a million other things! I don’t really make anything with my hands, as I tend to live in a world of ideas… this is something I would like to change, I think. This month I have been particularly bad at making anything. I’ve mostly been consuming: 4 books and watched 5 movies, which is crazy for me, and never even wrote a single blog post!
The lack of making was not the only reason for considering the topic of a new hands-on hobby. As I prepare to return to Canada, to a new community, I am imagining different futures. We are house-hunting still so I am not sure where I will be, nevermind who I will be for this next chapter of life. The philosophical exchange with my friends drifted from one possibility to another. Humans have been discussing eudaimonia for nearly 25 centuries, so we obviously weren’t able to solve that particular issue. But we did come to some conclusions that I would like to submit for your consideration and comment.