In marked contrast to an experience to be consumed or a goal to be met, Pieper’s leisure is something closer to a state of mind or an emotional posture—one that, like falling asleep, can be achieved only by letting go. It involves a mixture of awe and gratitude that “springs precisely from our inability to understand, from our recognition of the mysterious nature of the universe.” It opens onto, and finds peace in, chaos and things larger than the self, the way you might feel when looking at an enormous cliff face—or a sunrise, for that matter. As “a form of silence…which is the prerequisite
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