Finding peace in our pastimes

Hobbies provide an escape from our worries about the world.

Noun: pastime /ˈpasˌtīm/

Definition: an activity that someone does regularly for enjoyment rather than work; a hobby. From the verb pass + time, translating French passe-temps.

This c. 1980s stamp from the Solomon Islands features a local kingfisher subspecies.

My first hobby wasn’t birdwatching. My first hobby was stamp collecting. My mom bought me a stamp collecting binder with a big, colorful world map on the back cover. On weekends, she’d take me to a hobby shop that sold stamps and the little adhesive “hinges” that held them in the book.

Stamps from other countries provided a vivid, often puzzling view of the rest of the world. From Grenada and the West Indies, there were stamps that used images of cartoon characters on them. From the Eastern Bloc, there were portraits of sullen old men. It was hard to know what to make of these places as a 6-year-old. All you knew about them was their stamps. At the same time, perhaps these initial impressions said something important about these places.

Then there was birding, a pursuit that began with another big book, Audubon’s Birds of America. Loyal readers might remember some of my birding origin story. Birding continues to be something to retreat into for me and I hope for you, too.

There also were sports. Basketball and baseball were the two primary ones for me, where I participated on high school junior varsity and varsity teams, respectively. Golf was reserved for summertime recreation.

Then there was fishing. I’m not that outdoorsy or a sportsman by nature. I was introduced to fishing by my friends. I’d only used a push-button reel for the first few outings. Then it was on to spinning reels with open bales. Cast carefully toward a log or a set of lily pads, and a Largemouth Bass or an occasional Northern Pike would bite.

As college wore on, I picked up Frisbee golf and disc golf. You might not realize it, but there are major distinctions between these two pursuits. Frisbee golf uses a 175-gram disc, like the ones used in ultimate. The goals are informal and so is Frisbee golf, which aims for objects like fire hydrants, posts, and sometimes trees. Disc golf uses a smaller form that is something like a rubbery discus. The objective here is to toss the disc into a permanent metal basket that serves as the “hole.”

Some other pursuits have been backpacking, astronomy, and geology, though I’m a dilettante at best.

A geode found by the author in Henderson County, Illinois, shows a bubbly, botryoidal form. The geodes of the Mississippi River Valley are mostly formed from the 340 million-year-old Warsaw Formation.

I suppose most of the world categorizes and assorts all of these pastimes. We tend to close ourselves off to some things and focus on others for all types of reasons. Sometimes it’s what your spouse is into, who your friends are, or the surrounding culture or geography. But it’s interesting to me how much all of these activities have in common. Many of these diversions sometimes oftentimes turn into obsessions. The inveterate rockhound is as focused on the search for rocks as a birder is focused on the search for birds. The sports fan is as enthusiastic as the astronomer who finds a distant comet during a star party. Often there are adjacent communities that provide a camaraderie and a sense of belonging. These pursuits become their very identity.

At the core, there’s a sort of tunnel vision that allows one to make sense of the world and find some peace. And that might be what the human condition requires more than anything else. Finding some firm ground to stand on and solace in everyday connection to the world.

If you liked this post, you might enjoy this previous post from earlier this year: