前人发现了闲暇，而我们消灭了它.docVIP

前人发现了闲暇，而我们消灭了它 　　My great aunt loved to press flowers. She lived in the Northeast corner of California―the part nobody talks about―where the elevation is so high and the climate so dry you’ll get nosebleeds. The flowers were bright orange Indian paintbrush， delicate lupine， earthy sage. 　　Often she’d hike the mountains that border Nevada， or the stream beds that crust1 over in summer， searching for new plant life. She’d compare her treasures to botany2 books， then label and press them for safekeeping. A few times， she couldn’t find entries at all； she’d discovered plant species that no one had named. This earned her small accolades3 from the scientific community， but really she just loved to press flowers. 　　She was a hobbyist by nature. When not caring for family， she would dry pine needles and weave them into coasters or Christmas ornaments. But she was also a product of her time. In the post-war era， hobbies were what people did in their spare time， after work： basketball， cooking， writing poetry， fixing motorcycles. These were activities people didn’t feel whole without. 　　My great aunt died not long ago， in 2000， but she would have a hard time understanding how my generation uses its spare time. For many of us， the hobby is dead. Our work lives have merged with our free time， and hobbies are now often indistinguishable from second jobs. In a culture obsessed with productivity， the hobby has become the next venture. 　　After the US survived two world wars and the economic fragility they wrought，4 the American middle class discovered a new definition of leisure. The Industrial Revolution had already freed up more time than ever before. By 1950， the average work week hovered5 around 40 hours， down from 70 in 1860. Union membership peaked in 1954 at 35% of the population， contributing to job security and higher wages， and GDP rose 250% between 1945 and 1960. 　　This economic prosperity， together with technological innovation， created the modern corporation. Th