So, what do you mean "fun"?

Let's divide everything we do into two categories:

1. The things we have to do
2. The things we want to do 
   

Over-simplistically speaking, fun is why we want to do the things we want to do.

Sometimes, all too rarely, if you ask me, the things we have to do and the things we want to do are the same. Then the fun we have is very deep, in deed. Often, those of us who pursue the Playful Path deem the merging of 1.0 with 2.0 our personal apotheosis.

Now, let's divide the things we want to do (2.0) into two more categories:

1. The things we want to do because they will lead us to the things we really want to do
2. The things we want to do because we O so really want to do them 

The things of the 2.1 variety are often endorsed by social and cultural forces of great purport. Frequently, they come in the guise of jobs and community service and good citizenship and generally all require what the psychologists understand as the ability to "delay gratification."

These other things (2.2) are what we do for fun, what we think of, what we mean when we say "fun." We're not talking about awards or rewards. Just doing them is all we ask. Just experiencing them. Just feeling them. Jumping in them. Lying in them. Rolling in them.

Sometimes, also all too rarely, the things that we want to do because they lead us to the things we really want to do (2.1) are also fun (2.0). They may not be as much fun as what we really want to do, but they are more fun than the things we really have to do (1.0). Like joking around with strangers in the dentist office. Or trying to meditate while the dentist is getting the needle ready. (Listen, for example, to this.) These things, whilst not exemplifying the sheer delights of fun of the 2.2 variety, often characterize the more mature approach to the fun available to the more, shall we say, mature. This kind of fun, as exemplified by dentist-office humor, has been most thoroughly and inspiringly explored by my friend David Naster.

Further explication of the meaning of fun will be available by request. If you haven't already, see also this.

In the mean time, have fun.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith