The fun connection

Sometimes we forget. But at one time or another, one of the things that drew each of us to getting involved with whatever work we do is that we thought it was going to be fun. I'll get to why we forget in a moment. But first, I'd like to acknowledge the fun thing. That it's in fact why we're still here. Each of us. Because we want to have fun. Because we want to share fun. Because we want to create the opportunity for fun. For ourselves. For as many people as we can reach.

The forgetting

Fun things are always fun. But we aren't. It's a beautiful day in a beautiful part of a beautiful place. You're beautiful. The people you're with are beautiful. And you see this piece of garbage on your potentially pristine path, and all of a sudden it all gets ugly. The place is really just as beautiful as it was before. And yet, the fun drops out of life as if the whole world were nothing but one big dark hole.

Unless we find someway to remind ourselves, things stop being fun, you stop being fun. Even our jobs. Even our lives.

The reminding

Which brings me to the purpose of this website, and my general life. So we can remind each other why we got into this in the first place, and what we can be getting out of it, as well.

See, I happen to believe that it really is fun. I mean, everything. What we do. Why we do it. I think that fun is the natural state of, um, nature. And the only reason that things stop being fun, is because we forget.

So, what is fun?

The thing about fun is that most of the time we never really know we're having it until we're not. So usually we can only tell when something was fun. And then we forget about it. Unless it was really fun, so much fun that it was unforgettable. That's what I call "Deep FUN." What other people call being in "flow" Being in the "zone." I like to think of Deep FUN as those times when we get totally present. When we are exactly where we most want to be. Every aspect of our selves - mind, heart, muscles, breath, senses - is completely engaged. Involved. Not because we make ourselves be present. But because we totally, absolutely, entirely want to be doing what we're doing, in this place, in this moment, in this body. Because we are wholly, completely, exactly where we want to be.

Those are the times when we become gifted, when everything we experience is a gift - the day, the people, the ability to experience. When every word we can manage to form is a word of gratitude, praise.

So how do we make it fun? And how do we keep it deep?

The first step in making things fun is to take note of everything that we do for fun. So we can see it all. So we can see it, at all. My suggestion, start with an inventory: What fun do we remember having? Deep FUN can happen and be over in an instant - in the time it takes to catch the glance of someone who glances at us. An instant that at the time was timeless. Like the eternal moment of a high dive when we are between board and water. That could have just as easily happened on the telephone or on the way to the bus, on a tricycle or in a Ferrari. We make the inventory as inclusive and extensive as we can - we give it maybe days, weeks, until we've gather all those moments of fun in one place. And the more we collect, the deeper it gets, every time we think about fun, and every time we have it. And that's what this website is basically all about.