I could be wrong, we don't know him so all we have is what he says in interviews and a lot of conjecture, but I have always thought he is one of those men that didn't really get a chance to learn how to live well, and I think it's part of the working class, northern, work ethic thing. My Dad was the same, and his Dad would have been too, and those ethics if you like, obviously rub off on children. My father was always proud that he had never been unemployed, not one day; he had always finished a job either with holiday to use up or left a job on Friday and started another on Monday, not that he had that many. He had been a specialist Japanese telegraphist in WWII - not the most useful thing to be in civvy street - so the day after he returned home after he was de-mobbed, he started on a bricklaying course because so much rebuilding was needed afterwards. He went from that straight into a job with the government again with no time off. He never collected any benefits either; he worked, he earned, he earned more than he spent and he paid for all he needed. Benefits, to him, were for people who needed them, who couldn't work, and as he could, that was that, and he had his dour Scottish father to thank for those values but they are typical of northern, working class men of a certain age and even though my father, by his intelligence and his job, became middle class - just as Sean has - those values and ideas never left him and he truly didn't know what to do with himself when he had to take leave from work. He went fishing, and not very often, but apart from that he just did work on our houses, home improvements, decorating, landscaping the gardens, whatever we needed or wanted to be done, and whatever would improve the value of the properties, and in the evening he watched television. He didn't seem to know how to do much beyond the work, and the relaxation of television when he was too tired to do anything else.
From what I've read, Sean sounds the same and men like him need to learn how to relax, learn how to do other things that give them peace. He says he reads, sleeps, watches television and potters in his garden, and there are the odd short breaks like Matera but the rest is all work, work, work. He definitely needs a strong woman in his life to show him the way - if you will - show him what other things there are in life, what places there are to visit without it being a work thing, without thinking about work. There are so many exhibitions, galleries and museums in London let alone everywhere else but unless you are fine doing those kind of things on your own, which he doesn't seem to be - only children have such an advantage in life in that respect - you need someone to do them with and that someone has to do the guiding in the case of someone like Sean. There is so much more to life than he is getting with his workaholic nature but I'm betting he could learn - he is certainly intelligent enough - he just needs a knowledgeable and strong hand on the tiller, in my opinion.