Outside my door on a three foot support sits the fiberglass body of a rare British car, awaiting renewal.
The life cycle of the make and model of which I own a copy followed a sad course too often. Some, they live on the race track. Others are babied and live long lives. Most, I’d rightly guess, are loved enough that they are kept but not enough that they were kept up, so they fall to ruin. It’s a genius but simple car whose build quality was not stellar. Too many waste away in some undignified location vulnerable to the elements. A few are eventually adopted to be revived with various degrees of correctness. The numbers are kept small for the simple fact that proper renewal is almost guaranteed to be a money loser. The time spent had better be enjoyed, because there will be no monetary compensation for that either.
It is far better to simply keep up on the maintenance as required and recommended for a machine than it is to let it slip into the abyss of decay then lose it to someone else who years later will sink precious time and money into it and possibly put it back to roadworthy.
So many other parts of life follow this same pattern. Many of them aren’t worth renewing except for the same reason these cars are worth the unrecoverable costs. One doesn’t do it for the money. One does it to reinstate into the bliss of usefulness a thing whose actual value is in it’s enjoyment.
We don’t love for money. We don’t evaluate the cost of courting in terms of future return. If any do, they’re unwise.
There are a good many parts of our lives that have no promise of in-kind return.
For me, it makes sense to size up the intended effort and be honest about what drives me to see it through. That way, whatever reward comes can be enjoyed on the correct terms.
Decades ago a fellow chided me for the time I spent developing my little writing system.
He advised, “you’ll never make a dime off it.” He strongly recommended that I give it up, but it has handsomely delivered on every hope I ever had for it. I ignored him.
There is such a thing as ‘waste 0f time’ but what meets that criteria in your world may not apply to mine. I have no television because for me it would be a waste of time. I don’t shoot hoops because it would be a monumental waste of my time. That is true for me but I won’t advise you concerning either.
I have been passionately urged against having pets because they make messes, cost money, require attention, and can annoy. Meanwhile I know people who admit that they are alive because of the pets in their lives and homes.
It just goes on and on.
I think it is brilliant when a person lives such that they spend their time and money on things that satisfy them without regard to the opinions of others.