Creation, Experience, and Consumption

I think a fair bit about how I spend my discretionary time. Mostly, it is with some measure of despair and self-loathing, as I fear that time could be better spent. It is after all, the only truly finite resource we have. So, these things we call hobbies take a greater importance in the whole of our lives than the word usually calls to mind. It may seem silly to make kitchen utensils, when it consumes so much of a precious resource and leaves so little to show. But, I think it fills a place that needs to be filled for every person. The need to create. To organize or shape something into something new, different, useful, beautiful. That divine urge is in us all, and squelching it, or belittling it, kills something divine within us. How much easier it seems to have a hobby that is consumptive. The world does not belittle the person whose hobby is shopping or collecting. Somehow, acquiring the fruits of others' creation is  a normal, reasonable, rational thing to do. But why waste and wear out your life pursuing more when more will not satisfy? Try this, if you have not already. Make something. Then give it away. Paper airplane for a kid. Paper hat for a kid. A hot pad. A quilt. A spoon. It is not just fun- you are doing something that you were born to do. You are creating. Be a creator.