Aug 22, 2022
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If there's one word which can make me shudder with revulsion, it's "fun".
Stephen Fry
On fun.
I’m halfway through reading the Happiness Project (the very book that inspired me to finally go ahead with my own website. Which by the way feels like the epitome of technological vanity - look at me I haz my own urlzz!! But I digress. In her quest to ‘find happiness’, Gretchen Rubin sets out monthly resolutions to get closer to this achievement. Now every chapter thus far has sent me spiraling in deep introspection but May’s resolution stood out the most. May was to be the month she made sure to “Be serious about play” - find more fun, take time to be silly, go off the path, start a collection. Rubin talks about not only doing more fun things but to question if the very things that you are doing for fun is well, actually fun for you.
In many situations, we participate in activities because the rest of the group is doing it and we don’t want to be the odd voice out. Follow the path of least resistance so to speak. So we do it but are we reallllllly enjoying it? While I genuinely enjoy most if not all the activities my friends and I do, what I don’t enjoy though is the constant nose-glued-to-phone thing that us kids of the digital era are so guilty of. Yes I’ve done it. And I’ve also have been at dinner tables that have on-lookers wondering if we’re all just communicating via text. Sometimes checking Snapchat updates is just too irresistible! My Instagram followers NEED to know what I’m eating right now! While I’m at it, let me answer my Whatsapp messages because my friends who are not here, need a piece of Han loving too! See the situation might seem like our social media needs to keep in constant contact with us but dare I propose the opposite? Yep. We live to see the “_______ has liked your photo”, the number of eyeballs next to our snapstories and those follower requests??? Keep em coming!
Because nothing feels better than those reaffirmations that you are relevant, you are liked, your virtual company is wanted by someone out there. I get it. But guess what? Being around people means you are living that reality right in front of you. No one gets dressed, trek out of their house to share oxygen with people that they don’t think is awesome (unless they’re getting paid). What’s even more insulting? when all the effort of planning an outting gets spent staring at screens. So cmon, let’s get off our phones and lap in the endorphins of being relevant, being liked with the very people whom you are sharing physical company.
Just something I read on RookieMag that I liked. On Action and fun.
But aside from all that SERIOUS STUFF, action is just FUN. And fun is important! Especially, I would argue, for people who spend a lot of time being considered and careful and attentive and thoughtful. I had a music teacher in college, Bill Dixon, who was real real serious in class and who didn’t suffer fools. He was pretty intimidating. One time I asked him what he listened to when he wasn’t listening to jazz (which is what he taught), and he goes, “BARBRA STREISAND.” When I looked surprised, he said, “You can’t be HEAVY 24 hours a day!” I have obviously never forgotten that. It taught me that even the most genius-y people (no, especially the most genius-y people) need a break sometimes from DEEP RUMINATIONS to just ENJOY shit. (I’m not saying that Barbra Streisand isn’t deep or worthy of penetrating analysis, but this dude was so erudite about jazz that probably listening to any other kind of music would have been a nice li’l vacation for his brain.) Speaking of vacation! There’s a reason we have them—from school or from work. I just googled “the importance of vacation” and found a study that concluded that vacations’ “personal benefits have been found to include: rest and recuperation from work; provision of new experiences leading to a broadening of horizons and the opportunity for learning and intercultural communication; promotion of peace and understanding; personal and social development; visiting friends and relatives; religious pilgrimage and health; and, subjective wellbeing.” FUN IS IMPORTANT. It’s good for your brain, your body, your spirit. It can make you HAPPY, and what’s more profound than that? And isn’t that what summer’s all about?
Fun Magazine (Korea)
c: nt125 via ohohkaka-卡
oh, and our spring concert is going on right now
but I decided I didn't want to drink today
and I didn't want to pay 30$ to not have fun
in the hockey rink
I mean. It might be nice, still, just to go- but I'd really rather sit in the coffeshop outside the library where there aren't any people for a while.
once the washers are empty and I can get finished with this load of laundry, of course.
like, seriously. WHO ARE YOU AND WHY DO YOU NEED ALL FOUR WASHERS. Fuck you. I have no clean clothes left.