Helmut Thielicke on leisure

Don’t let others entertain you; do something yourselves, whether you dance or sing or play music or put on a play. It doesn’t matter whether any of it is good enough to put on the stage. Far more important is doing something together and working on these things that bring you together and liberate you from the cursed role of always being nothing but passive objects and empty pots for the professional amusement functionaries. Such a project entered into together will develop your own talents and show you who you are; it will show you how rich and fascinatingly fine life can be.

from “Our Freedom and Our Free Time,” in Christ and the Meaning of Life, (Harper, 1962), 150.