As the sun dips behind the palms I feel the last rays stroking my neck as I take in a deep breath, letting it fill my lungs and slowly pass between my parted lips, trying to slow down my heart beat. Muscles are tightening in anticipation and a drop of sweat tickles my cheek as it slides down from my temple. I can see threaded white strings woven together, swaying slightly in the tropical breeze that cools the streams of sweat trickling down my body. Then, in one fluid motion my cleat swings back and jolts the ball forward with intense force into the upper left corner, the goalie's fingers inches away from a save. Muscles are screaming, but I'm smiling. Lefebvre claims that leisure over the years had transformed from pleasure in production to simply a way to shut oneself away from all obligations and not have to think or perform. On the one hand, he has a point; TV and video games require very minimal action and are basically an escape from having to think or do work either manually or intellectually. He says how people have simply become lazy in their efforts to find something productive that they can take leisure in.
Take for example this picture I shot while the girl's soccer team was having practice. I played soccer for nine years and absolutely loved it: I took time out of my schedule in order to play this sport and took pleasure in doing so. But wasn't I, like all the girls in the photograph, also being productive in that I was exercising my body and becoming more physically fit as well as establishing closer relationships with the girls and guys on my team?
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