Having Fun

What do you do for fun? Now, there's a question from the blue, and one we might not want to answer.

 

"Fun" is a loaded word. To me it's kind of like the verb "to party", which apparently means simply to drink to the point of drunkenness. I don't party well. Even normal parties (where the goal is conversation, not drunkenness) scare the living daylights out of me. Thus, I'm always the first to leave. The death of the party, so to speak.

 

So what IS my idea of fun? A one-on-one conversation, perhaps. While both my daughters were visiting during early January, we spent four hours, just the three of us, sitting in the front alcove, talking.

 

Anyway, there's my answer: a long, heartfelt conversation is fun. Breaking the edge-ice along the sidewalk is fun. Drawing a cartoon strip (thank you, Linda Barry) is fun. Reading a book is fun. Doing the morning puzzles in the Globe is fun. Talking is fun.

 

My most recent insight into joy (related to but not the same as "fun") is this: I look at my life and say, "Where is the joy?", because I can't pinpoint many moments of sheer joy (this is obviously just a memory problem). And then (I'm slow to reach this point) I realize that the verb "enjoy" means literally to bring joy to something. To wrap it in joy. So the trick is not to search for elusive moments of joy from the past but to en-joy the moments that are there. If you can't be with the one you love, then love the one you're with. Make every moment a joyful one. Pollyanna, may I present Deepak Chopra.

 

So I'm out in the kitchen filling the quart measuring cup with water to pour into the new Brita filter and I think, "I really like doing this." The truth is that I like doing mundane tasks. If you do mundane things with a willing heart, then they transcend the physical and become part of your spiritual life—the forward motion of your spiritual life. And by extension, as you move forward spiritually, surely you can also advance along the emotional plane. Onward and upward! Up in the air, junior birdman! Keep your wings upon the ground.

 

 

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