WEISURE: Free time spent doing work or work-related tasks. (WordSpy.com)

We always joke about the postal delivery person who goes on a hike on her day off, or the carpenter who builds a garage on his vacation. There is even a phrase for it, "Postman's Holiday," although when I made reference to that term one day recently the much younger people with whom I was talking looked at me as if I was from Mars. I guess it's an archaic term these days.

But we all know what this term, weisure, is all about. I found it in the archive list of WordSpy.com, which is fast becoming one of my favorite blogs. It reveals that in my spare time I search out and read blogs that are related to this one. I'm guilty of weisure.

It would be easy to come down hard on weisure, to wax philosophical and describe the unhealthy aspects of spending free time at projects which are related to work. But I won't. Instead, I will point out that the reason I do it (and I suspect I speak for others on this matter) is that I enjoy it! It brings me pleasure. I learn from it. I enlarge my personal network. Is that all bad?

Of course, while I'm sitting at the computer researching blogs I could be walking, exercising, completing other chores on my "do list," or...maybe just doing nothing. I could be checking out the RISD museum, completing the Cliff Walk, or browsing the Athenaeum. I could be riding a bus downtown, sitting in on a court case, working on my new screenplay/putting finishing touches on my 'tween novel, or sending a short story query to a prospective magazine. I could be trying that new recipe I found in my wife's Real Simple magazine. It's not as if I'm without choices.

One of the joys of being in my new state of retirement, where writing is my only occupation, is that I have time to do whatever I want. What they say about retirement is true...my day speeds by and I never seem to have enough time to do everything I expected to accomplish. But that is true because I have time to read the entire New York Times every day. And I really can take my time doing a task, rather than having to rush through it, jamming it in before or after going to work. If there is a televised speech, an important event, or an interesting interview on television, I can watch it. My time is structured only by own design...with a little help from my wife.

And if I want to sit at the computer and check out blogs, I can do that, too.

I make it sound as if I'm spending hours and hours researching blogs. I'm exaggerating for literary emphasis. There's plenty of time to do all of those other things, and I probably will. Right after I finish reading interesting blogs.

Photo Credit: Home Page of Workaholics International Network

PARADOX:A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true (The Free Online Dictionary)

A paradox is one of those tricks of language which is worth a place in our thinking. The example given in the dictionary cited above is "it is more relaxing to stand than to sit." It seems unlikely, yet it can be true.

While paradoxes in literature are interesting, their place in academic pursuits can lead to extensive study . For instance, in the study of Christian theology the presence of paradox is the source of theological controversy. The example of Trinity is,perhaps, the best.

Christian theology says that God is one, yet three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This proposition, central to Christian faith, is an attempt to verbalize the belief that God, Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit are equal, yet diverse manifestations of the One God. To some, upon reading this, it would seem that the Christians are professing multiple deities...a direct contravention from the claim that Christianity is monotheistic. I won't even attempt to go further in the explanation of the Christian defense of this theological premise. It can be complicated and extensive. (Blog postings are supposed to be brief.)

However, the simple explanation of paradoxes such as this is that some theological premises are mysterious, capable of being held in deep faith without clear, rational, logical explanation. In the realm of faith one's mind has to be capable of the suspension of secularly logical explanation in order to grasp the deeper, more spiritual elements.

In our rational world this is unacceptable to many, and a source of an abandonment of spiritual pursuits altogether. But to billions of people who practice a variety of faiths, the embrace of a non-rational element is natural and not requiring a defense. It is not restricted to Christianity.

Paradox is not restricted to the study of theology, however. Even in the more rational exploration of science, paradoxes emerge regularly. An interesting paradox presented by Margaret Cuonzo in Sorites, a journal of analytical philosophy, says.

1)The hypothesis that the earth is a cube cannot be tested without being conjoined to an indefinitely large set of auxiliary hypotheses.

2) If the hypothesis that the earth is a cube cannot be tested without being conjoined to an indefinitely large set of auxiliary hypotheses, then the hypothesis that the earth is a cube cannot be shown to be mistaken.

3) The hypothesis that the earth is a cube cannot be shown to be mistaken.

Her use of logic in the practice of science leads to this kind of paradoxical conclusion.

For years I have been fascinated with the concept of self-referential paradox in which a statement appears to contradict itself. For instance, if I say, "Everything I say is a lie," then the statement itself is false, since, in saying it, I am telling a lie. Confused? Welcome to the crowd of academics who have pondered such issues for centuries. I think it justifies the placing of the word paradox on the list of the most interesting words in our lexicon.


Photo credit: The Trinity, Hungarian National Gallery of Art; artist unknown