Well, I found it.
I’ve long been searching for it, and now I’ve found it.
My new hobby. Something on which to focus my free time. There are so many things that one can see and read and do. But, where to invest one’s free time? Cooking, running, yoga, some sort of collection? There are just too many choices, too many things to collect. Where does one begin? So much choice, so hard to decide. This indecision has long prevented me from enjoying a relaxing past time and providing a confident answer to the ubiquitous question in Japan: “What’s your hobby?”
Recently, I discovered it on the Internet and I knew as soon as I saw that it was for me. This is something I can get behind. This is for me. What is it? Clouds. That’s right. As of today I am a card-carrying member of The Cloud Appreciation Society.
Sound crazy?
Sound like something only crazy, eccentric people would join?
I am member number: 16093. There are 16092 members before me. It should not be a surprise that the Cloud Appreciation Society is based in England, land of cheese rolling and other eccentricities. I think I have strong English blood because when I first saw this site I was immediately drawn to it. This was it: cloud appreciation. No expensive equipment, no special shoes or clothes, no rigorous examinations, nothing to buy nothing to collect. Just look up and appreciate and feel a connection with 16000 of my fellow members. What’s the purpose? No purpose. Why does everything need a purpose? Is there a purpose in spoon collecting? No, cloud appreciation, that’s for me.
However, now, when I reply to the question: “What’s your hobby?” I will have to learn how to respond to the head-tilting looks of confusion and the follow up questions that are certain to occur: “What?” “What’s that?” “Clouds?” What should I do?. Let’s see: Q: “What’s your hobby?”, A: “Golf”. There, sounds better. Perhaps I’ll save my true hobby for friends and any eccentric Brits I meet.
Screen shot taken to commemorate my membership: member number 16030 – before new members join.
The Cloud Appreciation Society
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/
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