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3

Man in Play, Sports, and Leisure

You can tell a lot about a man by the way he handles both his work and leisure time. Do you live for the weekend or do you look forward to going back to work Monday morning? I. F. Stone, editor of the Nation, when asked about his work, would say that he was “having so much fun he ought to be arrested.”

Finding a job like that is a treasure, but very few men are fortunate enough to be in that position. Most men spend five days a week in trying, often unpleasant, and sometimes grueling labor and spend the remaining two days trying to enjoy the little leisure time they have. Work should always take priority in a man’s life. It is his duty and the means by which he provides for himself and his family, but play is also a vital part of man’s development and character. Whether through sports, athletics, hobbies, or the arts, our free time shapes our minds and our bodies.

In competition and sports, a man develops attributes that last long after the game or match: perseverance, the will to win, teamwork, work ethic, and self-control, to name a few. Howard Cosell, the great American sportswriter, said, “Sports is human life in microcosm.” If you lose a game, do you give up and hang your head or do you press on with tenacity to win the next? If you win, do you boast and brag or do you credit your teammates and coach? The way you react on the field or the court will often mirror the way you respond in the office or the classroom.

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The twentieth-century sports journalist Grantland Rice used to say, “Eighteen holes of match play will teach you more about your foe than eighteen years of dealing with him across a desk.” This is true for more than just athletics. Whether it’s chess, music, hunting, fishing, or mountain climbing, the way you treat games and competition can reveal your character as a man. In his “Rules for Civility,” George Washington wrote, “Let your recreations be manful, not sinful.”

If approached correctly, games provide happiness while also improving a man’s soul. Albert Einstein remarked, “I know that the most joy in my life has come from my violin.” After a hard week of work, there can be no better feeling than enjoying healthy diversions. They refresh and replenish the mind like an ice-cold drink on a hot summer day. Benjamin Franklin taught that “games lubricate the body and mind.”

While we all need rest and relaxation, it becomes very easy for leisure to descend into slothfulness, laziness, and irresponsibility. Said Voltaire, the famous eighteenth-century French writer, “Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.” Television and video games, while entertaining and enjoyable, can too often become an excuse to shut off our bodies and minds. Never turn off your brain; use other parts of it. As you will notice, some of the excerpts in this chapter could be included in either the chapters on work or play. That’s because some men carry into sports and games a workmanlike ethic that distinguishes them from the rest of society. And some work gives so much joy, it might as well be play. We say TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday), but why not TGIM (Thank God It’s Monday) too? A well-rounded man applies himself diligently to his work while also making the most out of his leisure time.

There are no better examples of this than the great men of sports. “Pistol” Pete Maravich practiced basketball eight hours a day, and when he was exhausted he would watch basketball tapes or spin the basketball on his finger, never wasting an opportunity to improve. If we all approached life that way, imagine how successful we would be. Social scientist and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell calculated that in addition to talent and proclivity it takes ten thousand hours of practice to master an art or skill. Athletes like Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Michael Jordan, and Lance Armstrong are examples of Gladwell’s thesis. They push their bodes and minds to the limit and inspire us to do the same.

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Whether you are playing catch in the backyard, recording music, fishing and hunting, or practicing your three-point shot, make the most of your leisure time. Exercise your mind and your body in responsible and fulfilling ways. “Leisure only means a chance to do other jobs that demand attention,” said former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Work and play are not mutually exclusive events. Don’t assume that work can’t be fun and play can’t be laborious. “A man can never be idle with safety and advantage until he has been so trained by work that he makes his freedom from times and tasks more fruitful than his toil has been,” penned Hamilton Wright Mabie, an early twentieth-century American essayist. In play, a man is free to his own devices, and a true judge of his manliness can be how, when, and where he chooses to apply his time.