Silly me, I used to think hobbies were for losers
Sir Rod has shown more commitment to model railways than any wife
Do you know what this country needs right now? It needs hobbies. It needs interests. And talking about Brexit doesn’t count. Nor does a General Election. No, what is really needed is a comprehensive list of practical, yet interesting, diversions to fill the gaping great big hole that can currently be found in our collective soul.
Look at Sir Rod Stewart. Now there’s a man with a hobby. This week, he revealed the huge model railway city that he has painstakingly built over the course of 23 years. Twentythree years! The patience! The attention to detail! The commitment! Indeed, more commitment than he has shown to any of his three wives, but let’s not turn this into one of those columns. Featuring skyscrapers, stations, bridges, ships and roads, the mini US metropolis is utterly spectacular. Sir Rod told Railway Modeller magazine that he had worked on the structure even while on tour, requesting an extra bedroom to toil away in.
“We would tell them in advance and they were really accommodating, taking out the beds and providing fans to improve air circulation and ventilation,” he said. Now that’s dedication. But wait, there’s more. “When I take on something creative like this, I have to give it 110 per cent,” he added. “For me, it’s addictive. I started, so I just had to finish… A lot of people laugh at it being a silly hobby, but it’s a wonderful hobby.”
As wonderful as Sir Rod himself. But isn’t it a bit sad that so many people find his hobby silly? What might these people who laugh at Sir Rod’s “addiction” be doing in their own spare time? Sitting at home alone in their bedrooms, playing Fortnite? Staring at screens, adding filters to self-portraits as they prepare to upload them on to social media? Idly scrolling through the websites of high street retailers, looking for things they don’t really need to buy with money they don’t really have? (And when I say “they” in that last one, what I really mean is “I”.)
I mention this because, in other news this week, psychiatrists have argued that shopping addiction should now be classed as a mental illness. Patients with buying-shopping disorder (BSD) purchase more consumer goods than they can afford, or need, to get pleasure, but researchers said the ease with which they could now satisfy such cravings online was exacerbating their issues and causing a problematic addiction.
In the long term, such addictions can lead to family breakdown, debt, and even criminal activity to pay for purchases. Now, if you are a member of the stiff-upper-lip brigade (in which case, I’m not really sure why you are reading this column), you might scoff at this new mental illness. But I am sure you will also be able to find the space in your stone-cold heart to agree with me that what young people – and some old people, if truth be told – lack in their lives nowadays are hobbies and interests.
Good old-fashioned pastimes – such as model railway making, flower arranging, candle making and crocheting – have been replaced with “activities” that exist only on screens, without you ever having to leave the comfort of your sofa. Stamp collecting, kite flying and taxidermy may seem like relics of a bygone era, but there’s an application and concentration in them that you most certainly won’t find on Instagram or Asos.
Having had some personal experience of addiction (I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that I’m a recovering alcoholic?), I have to say that, prior to getting sober, I struggled to list a hobby on my CV that didn’t involve going out and getting drunk with my mates. I thought people with hobbies and interests, outside of work and socialising, were losers and I didn’t want to hang out with them. I thought I was too busy to fit anything else into my life – too busy numbing my brain with mindless activities like drinking and shopping.
Now I try to read two books a week. I run. I paint with my daughter. We bake an ever more complicated and fantastic series of cakes. And at the end of a day I do not feel as empty as I used to, and not just because I am filled with baked goods.
We need more things in our lives that involve creation and challenge, rather than mindless consumption. Sir Rod Stewart has proved that shiny showbiz things will come and go, but a good old-fashioned hobby? That will stay with you for life.