Humans occupy themselves in one way or another in everyday life. In society most people have the balance of work or labour, and leisure or play, and the activities of daily living.
Being occupied is one of the most important and distinct features of being human.
This week we looked at Work and Labour and discussed how these are different.
work is described as an activity which corresponds to the unnaturalness of human existence (Arendt, 1958)
Labour is described as the activity which corresponds to the biological process of the human body (Arendt, 1985). I describe labour as being necessity's of life, eg. Eating, Drinking, having shelter, working for money etc and Work is something people choice to do
Playing cards is defiantly 'Work', i do not need to play cards to survive. I do it to have fun, relax and spend time with friends and family.
Everyone needs to have a balanced lifestyle and make time to do the things they enjoy.
If cards were taken away from me i may lose connections with friends and family, i may lose skill and forget how to play over time, i wont be able to develop new memories, i would have less engagement with others.
References:
Arendt, H. (1958). The Human condition. New York, Doubleday Anchor Books. in Butler, M. 2011, lecture notes on Work, in Participation in Occupation 2 (BT238001)
Hi Claire,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting blog post of the differences between labour and work and how it relates to your occupation of playing cards. I can understand how it's not needed to 'survive' in the sense of 'labour' however it is needed to create a sense of balance in your life that I guess it could almost be argued that it is important for your 'survival' in a sense :)
It's interesting to think that there are multiple areas in your life that may be affected if this occupation was taken away from you as well!
Cheers, Nancy :)