‘Do all the things that speak to you’: René Robinson is an evangelist for having hobbies
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ROCK ISLAND, IL (Quad-City Times ) — René Robinson is an evangelist for doing things. Lots of things. Anything you’re interested in. Explore, travel, do, make. And in so doing, live!
And she definitely practices what she preaches.
When she’s not making sourdough bread, she might be weaving baskets, embroidering, piecing a quilt, tending plants, binding books or kayaking.
She also has a full-time job in information technology at the Rock Island Arsenal, writing specifications for computer software. And she teaches environmental science one night a week at Hamilton Technical College, Davenport.
But it’s the abstract nature of her job at the Arsenal that compels her to create things with her hands in her free time.
“I want to put my hands into things I can affect, things you can touch and say, ‘I did this,’ ” she said.
Working with software, “it’s not real,” she said. “You can’t touch it, you can’t hold it and say, ‘I did this.'”
“The more technical, the more abstract our world becomes, the more these homespun things speak” to us, she said. “Men, too. They might be working on automobiles or wood working.”
She likes to cast out her net, pursuing many interests.
She cites a book titled “Refuse to Choose” in which the author encourages people to “do all the things that speak to you” rather than feeling one has to concentrate on just one or two.
“Don’t feel bad about that,” she said. “That’s OK. Relish the fact that you are interested in so many things. Love the fact that you can travel through this.”
Robinson got into information technology as a second career.
Her first college degrees were in geography, psychology and secondary teaching. She taught high school in Sandwich, Illinois, then went back to school for her master’s. By that time, the personal computer revolution had happened and she received a degree in information technology management.
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