While The Kettle Boils

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 41, 5 April 1940, Page 43

While The Kettle Boils

Dear Friends, The small boys in my house are ardent philatelists. I have often heard them discussing their stamp collection, and wondered a little at their enthusiasm. The other day they got me down on my knees to point out some of their rarer specimens. When I rose to my feet, rather to my amazement, I found I had become a philatelist! Well, as far as intentions are concerned, anyway. Tomorrow I have promised to buy an album and start my ‘collection with some of their duplicates. This little personal experience is inconsequential, but it is meant to serve as an illustration of the fact that every man and woman, . married or = single, should have a hobby. It doesn’t really matter how trifling the hobby may be. It is the fact itself that is importantboth for physical and mental reasons. Psychologists tell us that we must have an ego-outlet, otherwise we are in danger of repression. The ego that exists in each and every one of us pleads for some distinguishing trait that will make us shine among others-in other words, give us an individual reason for existence. More than this, our hobbies widen our horizon and bring us social contact, thereby gaining for us a greater selfconfidence and a lessening of our petty fears. Human nature being as varied as it is, we have a limitless choice of hobbies. I am not attempting to suggest them here. It might be your garden, writing, painting, dressmaking, book, coin, or china collecting — a hundred other in-terests-but the main thing is to cultivate that interest. So many of us find ourselves in ruts, when life looks a pretty monotonous busi- | ness; the same old round of working, eating, and sleeping. Only people with hobbies appreciate the joy and relaxation of turning from that daily round to their particular hobby. | Don’t be hasty in your decision. Think well, and decide what you would really like to do best-then do it. You will find that life has gained a new interest and a fresh purpose. It might be all double-Dutch to the man next door, but. to you it is all-important-and that is all you have to worry about. Women, particularly, in their role of home-makers, should strive for some outside hobby or interest. Don’t say you haven’t time-make the time. It is much more vital to you than an extra hour of your day spent in household chores. I’m not suggesting that women lay down their tools and stage a revolution. I’m only pleading for a sense of proportion. So many women, in the care of their homes, forget that they own a mind, and that the mind needs care and feeding as much as the body. Without it the mind becomes rusty, and a person like that is a very dull person indeed. One woman I know has made knowledge her hobby. She told me one day: "TI am appalled when I contemplate life, d realise what a little span we have o live-how tiny is our individual world --and how much knowledge lies beyond it. I took a resolution-each day to learn something NOW. « « ee

It was not difficult work; she had not to move outside her home. She had in her library a complete Encyclopediaenough to last her for life-and each day she spent an hour, learning something she had not known before-adding daily to her precious store of knowledge. I have not seen that woman for a few years, but I know that if I met her now she would be a vital, and a deeply interesting individual,

Of course, this particular hobby may not appeal to all of us, but we all possess: some small talent, and until we find it and give it expression, we shall not be really content, Yours cordially,

Cynthia