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August
Raising the Barn and Lowering the Blood
Pressure
Back in the mid 1800s the idea of “leisure
time” was a foreign concept. Most people
worked, finished the work and started some other
work. There was very little down time or time for
anything that didn’t directly involve making a
living. The majority of households were farming
families of one kind or another and working from
sun up to sun down was the norm not the exception.
Even for kids old enough to understand and be
taught there were chores to do each day. Women
worked not only outside the home, as in out in the
barn, out in the fields, out in the garden, but
they also were “housewives” that cooked
and cleaned and canned and washed and…well you
know the story. Even their supposed
“leisure” activities involved things that
were important to the household and meant a better
life for the family. Things like quilting, candle
making, knitting and sewing. Everything that went
on was for the survival and betterment of ones
family. It was not an easy life by any means.
Fast-forward a hundred years to the mid 1900s.
Almost all the tasks that were once done by hand
and took days are now done by machine and take only
hours and in some cases only minutes. This new
industrial age of faster and easier made leisure
time a common thing in modern America. Farming
became automated and took half the time, clothing
and blankets could now be bought in stores as well
as bread and milk. Candles and gaslights were
replaced with electricity which was quickly
followed by television, the family car and
telephones.
Leisure time took on new meaning and with it
came the birth of the country club, social
organizations, neighborhood organizations, travel,
resorts and of course the good ol’ backyard
cookout. Families got together for birthdays,
neighbors had each other over to talk about world
affairs. Card playing clubs met regularly and of
course there was the yearly family vacation.
Leisure time was as common as breathing.
Now fast-forward a mere fifty years to our
present day. We have come full circle. With the
advent of bigger better faster everything our lives
and time have now become overwhelmingly over
scheduled. Cell phones, computers and email, iPods,
Blackberries, 978 cable channels all scream 24/7
for our attention. The advent of wireless
communication makes anyone, anywhere available at
any time to everyone. Once again, we have no
leisure time because instead of needing to work
hard to survive, we need to work hard just to keep
up and meet all the demands we have placed on
ourselves. At this rate in another fifty years we
will be completely obsolete, as humans and the
world will be run for us by our machines. Zager and
Evans had it right with the song “2525”.
Don’t remember them? Think, “I,
Robot”.
Not surprisingly the incidence of stress and
stress related diseases has gone up ten fold since
our forefathers time as well as suicides,
bankruptcies and divorce. We pop more pills, drink
more spirits, eat way too much, don’t sleep
nearly enough let alone exercise at all and then
wonder why we are sick and tired all the time. The
tragedy is that we have done this to ourselves
folks. We have crammed our lives so full of
gadgets, stuff and running from one thing to the
next that we have forgotten about people and
connection and time to relate to those around us.
You disagree? Ok, when was the last time you
actually wrote a letter? Not an email, a letter.
You remember, the things that people used to do
with the stationary, a pen and stamps, in your own
handwriting. An actual letter to someone you care
about. I sure can’t remember the last time I
did. And guys, have you ever written a love letter?
Yeah, me neither. At least not that I can remember.
My communications with my wife now amount to a
quick phone call during the day, when I can fit it
in, and a quick “how are you, yeah fine here,
ok, love ya, bye”. That is the whole
conversation. Ironically, she has a handful of
letters, yes, love letters, yes, from someone else,
that she received almost 20 years ago. Why does she
keep them? And I quote “because they are proof
that he took the time and made the effort to tell
me how he felt.” She and this guy have been
best friends for many years now so no, I am not
offended or worried. She keeps the letters as
tactile, solid proof that once someone took time to
say how they felt. Wow. You can’t tie a cell
phone call in blue ribbon and read it again later,
can’t even do that with an email because it is
not the same. And their friendship has endured.
Interesting.
When was the last time you took the time to say
how you felt or just sit and watch the rain or
listen to some birds out the window? We have
modernized our lives to the point that our machines
now run us. We interact more with them than with
people. Which brings me to the Hard Hat
Brotherhood. The reason our organization is so
vital to men’s lives today is precisely
because we live such crazy frenetic lives. The
Brotherhood is a way to build in one day a month
where you interact with people, without appliances,
face to face and enjoy some leisure time together.
We offer the good old fashion barn raising type of
socializing where everyone met for a united purpose
to achieve a common goal. So what if that goal is
to watch a ballgame, outside in the open air and
yell and cheer until you are hoarse? So what if the
“barn” we are raising is actually a cold
one in between laughing at the guys fishing stories
of the one that got away? None of that matters.
What is important is that we are making time, for a
few hours a month to share ourselves and our time
with others of like mind and do some serious
relaxing. What matters is that we are choosing to
connect with other human beings, not machines. The
rewards are beyond measure in how we will feel when
we do have to return to work, our family
responsibilities and our crazy lives. Even a little
leisure time pays great dividends in distressing
and reenergizing our minds, body and spirit. So
find a crew in your area or start one of your own
and reconnect with yourself and others in a
relaxing, leisurely way at the next Hard Hat
Brotherhood event.
Now, where did I put that pen and stationary
©2007, Andy Smith
* * *
Source:
Andy Smith, HHBrotherhood Central, 8449 Parkridge
Drive, Dexter, MI 48130, or 734.846.2283 or
www.hardhatbrotherhood.com
or headhardhat@hardhatbrotherhood.com
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