The Study

You can’t always be out fishing or running the dogs. Sometimes you just need to sit in a favorite chair and relax to take a load off.

Back in the day the favored place was oft referred to as ‘the study’.

Along the way it was called the ‘den’, but it seems in recent years some one individual called his place of respite, the ‘mancave’.

I wonder who that was?

I have been giving this some thought and have settled on the original and most appropriate.

The study.

study |ˈstədē|noun ( pl. studies)1 the devotion of time and attention to acquiring knowledge on an academic subject, esp. by means of books : the study of English | an application to continue full-time study.• ( studies) activity of this type as pursued by one person : • an academic book or article on a particular topic : a detailed investigation and analysis of a subject or situation: a study of a man devoured by awareness of his own mediocrity.• archaic: a thing that is or deserves to be investigated; the subject of an individual’s study : • archaic the object or aim of someone’s endeavors : the acquisition of a fortune is the study of all.• 3 a room used or designed for reading, writing, or academic work.4 a piece of work, esp. a drawing, done for practice or as an experiment.• a musical composition designed to develop a player’s technical skill.5 ( a study in) a thing or person that is an embodiment or good example of something :  ]1 devote time and attention to acquiring knowledge on (an academic subject), esp. by means of books : he studied biology and botany.• investigate and analyze (a subject or situation) in detail : he has been studying mink for many years.•

It is here that a man can study and consider both his past and future adventures in an environment perfectly suited to it. Having many reminders of his purpose; you might say visual aids, about him in the study, makes a lot of sense. He may read books on his chosen subject to make the ‘off-season’ days seem less barren. He may decide to study up on some aspect of field or stream to enrich himself and to possibly improve his time afield. He is to some extent a ‘naturalist’–of one stripe or another after all. He may dream a dream or consider how he might recover from his latest spousal blunder of either omission or commission.

He will have a desk and likely a fly tying and shell loading station, but most surely every study will have the ‘easy’ chair. A chair that invites the body to repose for thinking and reading, for listening to music and for watching appropriate video. A chair that has room and is situated to allow for a canine friend. No cat can be tolerated in the study. Always, there is at least one fire arm. A favorite shotgun, cork or rifle that can be fondled and studied again, though it has been many times before. A gentleman will always have paper and pen at hand to jot down a thought or perhaps do a sketch, or perhaps to flesh out some plan or trip. Whatever he wishes, because it is his place and he can indulge himself while there.

Within the castle of his home–a home of homes–the ‘study’.

I know that I have barely touched the surface of the subject and ask for lenience and understanding as well as the reader’s thoughts.

~ by John McGranaghan on June 24, 2010.