Kind Fun

As doting parents are wont to do, beloved wife Rocky and beloved I were exchanging dotes about what we thought to be our proudest accomplishments, which, of course, if they can be called "accomplishments," are our kids. And the one thing we immediately thought of, pride-wise, was that both of our kids, when all is said and done, were kind people.

Which led me to thinking about fun, of course, and the kind of fun that has proven to me to be, after all the saying and doing, the most consistently fun. And, as you have probably already surmised, surmising kind of person that you probably are, that kind of fun is the kind kind. Like the kind of fun I experienced in New Games when we were playing People Pass.

In the picture above, people are lying on their backs in two rows. One person, at the "head" of one of the two rows, is gently positioned so that she can be carried from the beginning to the end of the double-line. Then the next person is readied for his ride. Much attention is paid to the person who is getting the ride - to the sense of safety and comfort and caring. The result is plainly reflected be the woman's expression in the picture.

We played this in many different configurations during the life of the New Games Foundation. Always with a focus on the "ride" we were giving the person, and that person's comfort and joy. And it was almost as much of a delight for the people who were giving the ride.

I remember a particularly "touching" moment, when a person in a wheelchair wanted to play. Lifting that person out of his chair and onto the line - I think it was one of the first times I actually had my hands on someone so handicapped - and then watching the expression on his face as he gave himself over to the group - and the expressions on everyone's face. A celebration, really, of our capacity for kindness.

And then there's the Lap Game where everyone sits on everyone else's lap.

And then that particular kind of fun that gets created when parents and children play together, really together, like in a game of Junkyard Golf where the parents help their kids play a form of golf on a sort of course that they themselves made out of kinds of junk.

Or the kind of fun that has been the focus of my work when I write about the Play Community where the people who are playing are always more important than the game itself. Or the kind of fun you can even find in a few commercial party games, like GiftTrap and Whoonu.

Maybe it's because of the contrast, the stark contrast between the kinds of fun I'm talking about (the kind kinds), and the cruel kinds of fun that are built out of other people's pain.

I know, I know, those kinds of fun, the cruel kinds, are often as fun as other kinds of fun, at least for some. And were I a true advocate of all things fun I would embrace those kinds of fun as completely as I cherish the kind kinds. But apparently, fun-wise, I'm not so eclectic. Not at all.

And as I steadily and inevitably approach my dotage, it becomes evermore self-evident to my self that there are only certain kinds of fun I truly believe in. And, when I am finally said and done, the legacy that I hope people will receive from my work is not so much that I helped bring more fun into their world, but more kindness.