What’s Your “Sad Waste of Brains”?

Posted by David Duhr in Finding Time to Write      8 comments

Dec
7

Last week at the Writers’ Museum in Edinburgh an object and placard in the Sir Walter Scott section caught my eye: It was a chess set that belonged to Scott, and the accompanying text described the author’s view on chess.

In essence, he understood the appeal of the game (he’d played it often as a young man), but why, he wondered, would someone spend so much time studying and practicing and playing it when he or she could use that time to instead learn a new language?

“Surely,” he said, “chess-playing is a sad waste of brains.”

Good thing he didn’t live to see Hungry Hungry Hippos.

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Occasionally I’d play chess with my dad when I was a teen. He beat me every single time. Despite that, I’m not sure I would trade those games — the memories of the experience — for fluency in another language.

Maybe I would. I dunno. It would’ve been nice to win a game.

Some might say chess is its own language, anyway. Language is, in large part, about communication: Two chess players who don’t speak the same language can still communicate through the game.

But the point is, Scott prioritized intellectual pursuits over such diversions.

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Don’t worry, this isn’t a rant about how I think we’re all watching too much TV.

Most of us engage in our share of leisure activities, and they help keep us sane. I don’t know much about Sir Walter Scott. I’ve never even read one of his books. But I imagine he had his amusements and diversions. Surely he didn’t spend all of his non-writing time learning Igbo.

And then practicing it with his dog, seen in the portrait on the right. Was petting the dog a sad waste of brains?

I watch plenty of TV and movies. I occasionally play some nostalgic Nintendo. I’m on a summer and a fall baseball team. Every now and then I’ll put together a jigsaw puzzle. And I spend hours every week playing with, and annoying the hell out of, our dog. Who is much cuter than Walter’s.

Are any of these “a sad waste of brains”?

I wish I spoke more languages. I have justenough Spanish to get by, and often it feels like I have just enough English to get by.

And I could easily study a new language — if I made it a priority.

But I don’t. And that’s OK!

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Still, I sometimes wonder if I spend too much time on the above amusements. We all need to find our own definition of “too much.”

These days, my saddest waste of brains is social media, particularly Twitter. I find myself almost compulsively updating my streams, and usually I log off feeling worse than when I logged on.

(N.B. I am not saying social media is a waste of brains or time. I’m referring only to how I use it, and how I feel about how I use it.)

If I deleted (for like the eighth time) my Twitter app it would doubtless free up a couple of, even a few, hours a week.

And if I replaced that app with the Portuguese version of DuoLingo, I could begin to prepare for the trip we may take to Lisbon in 2018.

I just might do that.

But don’t go getting a swelled head, Sir Walter; I won’t be doing it for you. In fact, as soon as I publish this post I’m going to play a few games of computer chess.

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Your turn: What do you do that Walter Scott might call a “sad waste of brains?” Do you think it is? If you were to give that thing up, what would you do instead?

I guess the real question is: Are you happy with the balance you’ve struck between leisure and work and writing and life? If not, what would you like to change?

Let us know in the comments!

WriteByNight co-founder David Duhr is copy editor and fiction editor at the Texas Observer and has written about books for the Dallas Morning News, Electric Literature, Publishing Perspectives, and others.

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