Good-bye Arthur Melin

Now that you're dead, your contributions to humanity (Superball, Frisbee, Hula Hoop, Slip'N Slide, Silly String) can finally be acknowledged.

Thank you, Arthur, for your gifts. Yes, I know, you didn't invent the Frisbee. You bought out Pluto Platter. But you definitely knew a good toy when you saw one (most of the time - there was the "Belly Bongo"), and gave the world the toy I most wish I had invented.

And now, for a little exercise in perspective. (via Presurfer)

The Biology of Hope

Actual Title: "The Anticipation of a Laughter Eustress Event Modulates Mood States Prior to the Actual Humor Experience"; L.S. Berk, D.L. Felten, J. Westengard;
Susan Samueli Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, UC Irvine College of Medicine, and Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, CA.

"We believe that the "biology of hope" that underlies recovery from many chronic disorders includes, in part, the synonyms optimism, anticipation, expectation of positive interventions and experiences. If complementary and integrative interventions/adjunctive therapies, directed towards wellness and recovery from chronic diseases, can incorporate positive expectation or anticipatory experiences ( "hope," the resultant changes may not only 1) contribute to beneficial positive mood state changes; but also, 2) modify important biological/chemical mediators that optimize immune responses; 3) diminish stress-related molecules and inflammatory mediators; and in total 4) potentially contribute to the prevention and healing processes. "

everyrule.com

Everyrule.com

Well, a LOT of rules. For kids games and sports, casino games and card games and etiquette, even.

"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and it won’t even lend you a handkerchief."

Anne Durrum Robinson, "Chairwoman of the Bored...an 88-year-old Texan who has preached the healing power of humor, creativity, and intuition in workshops and keynote speeches for over 20 years."

What to say to a goarbellied, rump-fed ratabane

A Shakespearean Insult Generator for the temporarily flummoxed, by way of ZFilter

Playing Grownup

Ever see kids playing grownup? Notice how they get so serious and sometimes even mean? Notice how well they've learned to look like they're not having fun?

Here's my Logical Conclusion of the Day:

We're still playing grownup.

Oh, we're good, all right. Especially at looking serious. And looking like we're not having fun.

But we are still only playing. And playing only grownup.

Department of Welcome Twists in the Evolution of Internet Services:

MEETUP is an online service for people who want to meet people in the in the (gasp) flesh! Find or create a topic. Find a meeting place near you (select from their listing - Starbucks, Taco Bell, whatever). And meet with like-minded strangers.

Lot's of fun potential here.

(thanks Doc)

And while we're at it, here's one of Scott Kim's

In response to this from Roger Greenaway.

I want to talk first about DeepFUN, then about Deep Fun, DeepFUN the meditation practice first, then Deep Fun the experience, basically because I've been thinking more about it.

I'm using DeepFUN to describe a yoga-like practice, a peace-based T'ai Chi of mindful fun. In DeepFUN meditations we play games that are for fun so that we can have fun and reconnect to the One Fun that connects us all. We play them mindfully so that we can deepen our understanding of, and connectedness to the flow of fun in our every day lives.

I'm close to happy with my current description of DeepFUN the meditation practice .

Deep Fun the experience is getting as close to flow as possible without taking it seriously. It's fun that occurs in Deep Time, fun that engages us mentally and physically, emotionally and socially, person-to-personally. Fun that redefines fun.

The games played in DeepFUN meditations are not your big-time, Deep Fun-producing kind of games. They are your pointless, scoreless exercises that challenge you to the impossible, and make you laugh. They do not require skills the way tai chi or juggling or running require skills. And yet they quieten the ego, transform the ego, reduce the ego to giggles. And some kind of flow is had by all.

But not the Deep Fun flow that comes only with practice, with familiarity and obstinance and endurance and mastery.

And yet, it is my espoused belief that DeepFUN meditations will get you to Deep Fun, faster. Regardless of the practice or sport or game or craft or hobby.

Deep Fun generally requires total immersion in and commitment to a game (read: job, craft, hobby, community, identity). DeepFUN meditations focus not on the game or the skills required to win, but on the fun.

Deep Fun is a flow state. As such, the balance between challenge and abilities is a relative and changing dynamic. As a novice or as a master, when you become totally engaged, you are in flow. Most informal games, hobbies, etc., are designed to provide Deep Fun for people of a very wide range of abilities. Until they become formal. And then the range decreases, intensifying the challenge so that only the most able arrive at Deep Fun.

I don't think the experience of Deep Fun is different for a novice or a professional. If the person is engaged, if all that person's abilities, whatever their degree, are fully engaged, Deep Fun is what they find. Flow is flow is flow.

However, it is the nature of us and of the games we play that our abilities increase as we play them more, and so we increase the challenge until we find ourselves just this side of competence, and then we see if it's possible to do even better. So we require more and more from our games and ourselves, deeper and deeper challenges, to get back to Deep Fun. And so we grow.

36th Anniversary today. If wealth were love, today I'm a billionaire.

DeepFUN Meditation Classes


DeepFUN meditations help you reconnect with the world, and become “one with the fun.” They are active meditations, involving mind, body, self and community. DeepFUN meditations are fun- and thought-provoking exercises that reconnect you to fun, in the deepest meaning of the word, bringing wholeness and renewal and profound belly laughs.

Each DeepFUN meditation involves three elements: focus, play and reflection. The focus is fun. The play experience is through “pointless games” - actually scoreless – funny fun games that are engaging, safe, and played in a nonjudgmental environment. Each meditation concludes with a process of reflection that is collective, open-ended, highly instructive and also fun.

DeepFUN Meditations are 45 minutes long – just long enough to get released, re-energized, realigned and restored.

DeepFUN Meditation Classes are offered as a series six, 45-minute meditations, meeting twice a week for three weeks. Since each DeepFUN Meditation is different, repeat participation brings more fun, more deeply. The fee for the series is $75. Drop-in is $15.

DeepFUN Meditations are developed and led by Bernie DeKoven, the “Guru of Glee.” Bernie’s exploration of “fun as a spiritual path” has led him to write a book (the Well-Played Game), a website (DeepFUN.com), a curriculum (Interplay), award-winning games, worldwide trainings, and to achieve widespread recognition as a pioneering teacher of fun.