To the ears of ceaselessly busy and ambitious modern Westerners, it will come as a shock, and perhaps as an insult, to be told that human affairs are "unserious." But this fundamental truth is exactly what Georgetown professor James Schall has to teach us in this wise and witty book. Following Plato, Schall argues that singing, dancing, playing, contemplating, and other "useless" human activities are not merely forms of escape from more important things - including politics, work, and social activism - but an indication of the freedom in and for which men and women were created.<BR>Echoing philosophers such as Josef Pieper, Schall explains how the modern world has inverted the rational order of human affairs, devaluing the activities of leisure and placing an exaggerated emphasis on utilitarian concerns. Though he does not deny the importance of those necessary and prosaic activities that take up the bulk of our daily lives, Schall puts these pursuits in perspective by asking, what do we do when everything we have to do is done?