2003 Year in Review

Ah, Fun

What is fun? I know what fun is; you know what fun is; we both know what fun is. Fun is more than, as one dictionary defined it, a “source of enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure.” Fun is much more than the definition. Fun is the active participation of a person with an activity that is imminently joyful, amusing, and pleasurable.

“Having fun” is not the same as “being funny.” Some people confuse these two situations. I may, for example, find certain stand-up comedians to be “funny.” That is, they make me smile, grin, or laugh aloud. Jay Leno and David Letterman, even Conan O’Brien, can titillate my funny bone with a good monologue or a well-timed one-liner. On the other hand, mediocre comedians such as David Spade and Adam Sandler leave me wondering, “That’s funny?”: No, having fun is not listening to or watching someone else be funny. I may be amused, I may be enjoying myself, but I’m not having fun, (the comedians, on the other hand, may be having fun) because, other than listening, I’m not engaged in producing the fun.

Who Would Have Thought Having Fun Was So Much Work?

In this first foray in search of “having fun,” I chose to cruise the Internet in hopes of finding fun ideas and activities other than the on-line card games and casinos; ideas that would be suitable for children, say, or an individual, or even the entire family. And – very important – the fun places I found had to be free, no charge, no fee, free, free! Nothing takes the fun out of Internet surfing as much as the constant electronic groping for my credit card.

What better place to find fun activities for children than at a web site devoted to children and fun, right? At www.childfun.com I’m afraid it’s not all fun and games. On the homepage, I was greeted with the following “fun” items under the heading “health & fitness”:

Take fitness expert Kathy Smith’s Free Vitamin & Lifestyle Profile for:
Lifestyle, Diet & Fitness Advice
A Personal Vitamin Plan for Your Health Concerns
How to Choose a Pediatrician
Head Lice Treatment
Been There Done That Toilet Training Tips
10 Tips for Flu Season

Kathy Smith doesn’t sound like a fun person. Let’s move on.

There are web locations devoted to the individual having fun. For example, www.coping.org/growth/fun.htm considers any muscular movement a fun activity, and succeeds in making a few cogent, useful points until it destroys its own caricature with a tedious, boring, unfulfilling “fun self-analysis activity.” Contemplate, if you will, the fun involved in creating “a chart in your journal with six headings,” then “brainstorm[ing] a list of at least forty fun activities.” Top this funness with “a fun plan of action…to recapture fun in my life.” Please! Isn’t much of the essence of having fun the unpredictable nature of it? Are not plans burdens in themselves? Doesn’t making plans to have fun take away much of the pleasure of having fun?

Okay, fun for the child, fun for the individual, but what about fun for the whole family? One website designed to provide “information on a variety of family friendly fun and informative topics...to enhance the quality and fun of family life with special needs” is www.family-friendly-fun.com. This “family-friendly-fun” web site serves as a portal to various web locations that sell books and other commodities. To get a feel for the “family-friendly-fun” the site offered, I checked three sections: exercise, finances, and food (an eclectic mix, I agree, but indicative of my somewhat idiosyncratic sensibilities).

I exercise, not as a source of enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure, but rather as a necessity for my continued good health. You’ve heard the expression, I’m sure: “No pain, no gain.” I’m not into masochism, so the idea of exercise as fun is not my cup of tea. This particular section offered nothing, absolutely nothing, to change my mind.

I like spending money, so what advice did I find here for one of my favorite fun activities? “Start bringing your family finances under control by taking the time to work on and follow faithfully a family budget; eliminate [sic] wasteful spending, evaluating purchases and saving money on what you buy, getting out of debt, and then starting a regularly scheduled investing program.” I’m sorry, but such advice, well-intentioned as it may be, doesn’t sound like fun to me!

Many of us enjoy eating. Eating is a fun activity, not merely a life-extending necessity. We relish the aroma of this seasoned dish and indulge ourselves in the taste of that delicate morsel. Fun eaters are not particularly concerned with the ratio of fat grams to portion calories. Alas, this site offers a cookbook “filled with advice and healthy, quick recipes.” “Quick” can be a fun word, but – give me a break – “advice” and “healthy” are not words that excite the salivary glands of fun eaters.

It may be the only fun places on the Internet are fee-based sites. I’m not sure, since I’m not willing to cough up five dollars here and five dollars there to find out. I mean, I could spend a ton of money looking for fun in all the wrong places, only in the end to prove what I already know – Having fun is hard work and – to add another caveat - expensive.

Bear with me, though. I know somewhere out there or over yonder having fun can be the joyful, amusing, and pleasurable experience for which we all search.

Maybe I should get off the information highway at the next junction and look around in the real world. Having fun could be something as simple as stopping at my local bank or shopping at the local grocery.

I’ll take that look around and get back in touch with you. Until then, have fun!

by William Driver, Guest Columnist
February 15, 2003