i'm going to say my pipe smoking is not a hobby, because that all sounds a bit namby-pamby to me, and no part of a manly pursuit of a noble and gentle yet rugged tradition
and,
hobbies are for people with too much free time
These two statements -- in addition to
@lawdawg's similar but admirably objective insights -- go a long way towards explaining what's going on here.
Rightly or wrongly, I have inherited a different notion of "hobby." The only hobby that my dad ever had was wood working. It did not pull him away from the family -- we were either with him, or he did it after we kids were in bed. It was productive and it was usually for others. Sure, he made book shelves for his office -- he was clergy -- but otherwise, he made useful things for my mom and others.
So my notion of hobby is the furthest possible thing from fastidious, dandy, affected, kitschy, mamby-pamby, or wasteful.
Granted, pipe smoking (by which I refer to everything we're talking about here -- pipe collecting, tobacco sampling, etc.) is certainly the most
potentially dandy and wasteful of my "hobbies."
I am also into traditional archery, which
(1) is a family activity which helps me stay connected with my kids, and
(2) potentially provides food, via hunting.
I am also into making fly rods, which
(1) I am teaching my kids to do, and
(2) I make for others... currently I'm making one for each of my kids and then my wife.
But I'll grant that the pipe thing has the
potential to be a selfish eccentricity, and effeminate in its fastidiousness and in its more consumptive than productive nature.
I hope to avoid that
way of being into pipes, but I think that many here restrict the use of the word "hobby" to
that.
One more thing. Warren says:
Of course a hobby is just an excuse to spend time away from the wife and kids. So, a hobby is a selfish choice also. But, most hobbies are not a vice so, nobody needs a hobby. Only married guys with kids need a hobby.
Unfortunately, this is too often true for too many men. Warren makes a good point about the way things often are.
But I'd like to point out that this is not
of the essence of "hobby."
I myself, having a horde of delightful and rambunctious offspring, made a decision a couple years ago that, henceforth, I would limit my "hobbies" to things we could do as a family, and intentionally engage my kids in these things.
Even as regards pipes -- I normally have one bowl an evening, while reading a story to the kids (we're currently working through Lewis's Cosmic Trilogy). It's not apart from them. And in fact, if I don't pack a bowl, they howl for me to do so (esp. since I received a generous sample of Ennerdale from
@hauntedmyst ... they beg to smell that room note again and again!).
P.S. Although some of us don't have much in the way of "leisure" time (depending on how you define it), we should not look down our noses at leisure as
intrinsically effeminate, since it can be, as Joseph Pieper says, "The Basis of Culture." It can be used productively. Throughout history, temporal margin has made room for great art, great invention, great exploit. Without that margin, status quo can't move. Sure, many squander leisure (I think of the dandies in a Jane Austen novel who waste their privilege as landed gentry on gossip and party planning, or of modern "men" who play video games for hours a day); but, some of us are sensitive to our intrinsic need for purpose, and tend to employ leisure for real good.