When Enjoyment Becomes Obligation

This morning, I read an excellent blog post about how the Author goes through periods of reading and periods of not reading, and his feelings about it.

His experience mirrors my own, but not just with reading. I experience this with most kinds of media. There’s an ebb and flow to my personal media consumption, and I’ve learned to ride the waves of interest as they come.

And speaking of interests, this happens with other types of interests as well, not just media. But that’s a story for another day.

It used to be distressing to all of a sudden feel like you can’t read or stop watching a show just before the last season (hello, Walking Dead). Or to play something every day for two years and then suddenly stop (hello, Minecraft).

I don’t completely understand why this happens, but I think for me, a feeling of obligation initiates it. Even something enjoyable can feel like a demand in the right environment.

Once I feel an obligation attached to an activity that is for leisure, even if I’m the one who created the demand, I nope out, as the kids these days say. (Do they even still say that? Probably not.)

Sometimes I return to a show or a book, to reading, hopefully to Minecraft, but the feeling of obligation when I think about it has to go away before I can pick it back up again, be it time or my bad memory, or a shift in priorities.

Part of it also has to do with having limited time. There’s no way to do all the things, all at once, so sometimes things go on the back burner. And it’s way easier to put an obligation on the back burner than something that feels relaxing, but doesn’t demand anything.

Sometimes reading is relaxing, sometimes it demands too much. Sometimes the next episode of a show chastises instead of calls. Sometimes Minecraft feels like work and not play.

To use a phrase, used far too often, but appropriate here – “It is what it is.”

It just…

is.