The Power of Words
A recent exchange I had with a stranger got me thinking: what lies behind the words that we choose?
As writers, we feel strongly about words.
Some might say a word is just a word: what truly matters is the underlying message.
While I don’t entirely disagree, I tend to exercise a healthy dose of caution with words.
You see, words can be treacherous. We can say one thing when we mean another. We can all play pretend… until the word takes over and becomes the message.
As the old adage goes: it’s all shits and giggles until someone giggles and shits.
My point is words carry weight. From witchcraft and prayer, through proclamations, marriage vows and divorce decrees, words can shape our lives and define our future.
Words make things happen: from small pleasantries to love confessions, big arguments, conflicts, revolutions and wars.
This is why I never underestimate words, and you shouldn’t either.
I guess I’m not the only one who has a particular issue with certain words. One word I absolutely hate is hobby. What does it even mean? Why not activity, or interest, or pursuit?
Someone told me the other day that vinyl was a great hobby. Excuse me? Since when is it considered a hobby?
There’s something irritatingly condescending about calling something a hobby or pastime. A hobby will necessarily get relegated to second place. There’s always something else that takes priority.
Is going to the gym a hobby now as well? Playing sports? The stock market? Reading and writing? Having a pet? How about painting and drawing? Or climbing mountains?
For me, record collecting has always been a lot more than a mere hobby. It’s a passion, first and foremost, but it’s also an investment—and not purely financial.
Thanks to this “hobby”, I have learnt a ton about audio production and technology, supply chain manufacturing and asset class selection. Not to mention the chapters of music industry knowledge I would have missed.
Crucially, the entire volumes I still have to learn.
At the height of lockdown, when we were all doing our best to survive, my husband —who, in case you were wondering, is by far the more composed and less dramatic of the two— asked me how on earth I managed to stay sane.
He was dead serious—he was genuinely trying to make sense of this oasis of peace and quiet that had taken over me.
“You’re not drinking more, you’re not eating more, you’re not smoking more, you don’t have trouble sleeping—how do you do it?”, he asked.
As avid gym goers, of course the home workouts sucked. A lot of things sucked. Of course I was worried, and angry, and sad, and going through the same emotional rollercoaster as everybody else.
I hadn’t really paid much attention to how I was coming across. I suppose we were all doing our best to carry on.
I smiled, grateful to receive a compliment I’m not particularly used to receiving, and said: “I’ve got my records, I guess.”
Don’t call your passions hobbies. The main difference between a hobby and a passion is that a hobby disappears as soon as the going gets tough.
Hobbies or pastimes are easy to pursue so long as there are no worries, no conflicts, no disagreements, no uncertainties, no distractions.
A passion, in contrast, keeps you grounded. It gives you purpose. A passion is worth fighting for.
In my heart, music and records are inseparable. I can’t imagine life without one or the other.
How could I possibly call this a hobby or a pastime? No, I’m sorry, it’s the other way around. I don’t do this to pass the time. Time passes while I do this. While I choose to do this.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Thanks for reading/listening. Happy spinning!
There is so much I could say about this, because of course The Red Abbess, my other substack, is devoted to passion and why it's maybe the only thing that matters, ultimately, and maybe the only thing powerful enough to save us from the mess we're making of this culture.
And yes, the word "hobby" irritates me. as well But I do think some people have hobbies -- pasttimes that aren't passions, and are just ways to, well, pass the time. I don't understand the point of that, when there is passion out there to be experienced, but I recognise that not everyone even understands that there might be more to life than a job and a hobby, and so they do what they can to get by. That's not my choice, but it is a choice, I suppose, and at one point, I got a bit stuck there, so I empathise.
And yes, a spell is a sound made in order to affect the world, and that's exactly what words are, and thus they are by definition spells, which is why I write them so carefully, and why writers are magick-makers, whether they conscious understand that or not.
PS I've always loved that "changed priorities ahead" signs... the Brits are so much better at street signs that the Americans are.
Yeah, I also hate the word hobby. I think I probably used it myself as a way to minimize the importance of my non-moneymaking passions. I called playing percussion, gardening, tennis, music collecting and obsessive music magazine reading, "hobbies." I tried to fight off how society and media made earning money and moving up the ladder, buying a house, a fancy car, etc., the important things to focus on in life. But I wanted none of those things. Luckily my inner conflict with the predominant capitalistic force waned in recent years. Sped up by the pandemic.
Thanks for this piece, Andres. It's great to have so many passions!