Fun is Not Overrated

When I was working, I craved time to enjoy more fun. Now that I have more leisure time, I can tell you definitively that fun is not overrated. It replaces frowns with laugh lines, banishes bags from under your eyes, and is conducive to better health and a sound night’s sleep.

Fun makes life feel fuller. It lingers in the mind through pleasant memories. You can replay the best of life via mental snapshots (the way a loved one smiled and laughed with you that beautiful afternoon), or audio you can rewind time after time (of that cool, new rock band jamming at the street fair). Happy memories are stored in your own personal database, where you can take them out and review them whenever you want.

Everyone has their own idea of fun. For me, it could be any one of a number of things, like an afternoon absorbed in a good book, a hot dog and a baseball game, a visit with a dear friend, a gallery opening, or wiggling my toes in warm sand. I think if it generates smiles, warms your heart, or rocks you happily to sleep at night – it’s a keeper.  I'm into pursuing as many of those happy experiences as possible.

Fun also helps put life into perspective. I prefer to have less day-to-day drama now. Life deals us poor humans plenty of real drama, in the form of illness, accident, and misfortune. When people generate their own mini-tragedies, I find it sad. I don’t want to be an enabler of that type of destructive behavior.

Life is complicated and sometimes really serious and difficult. Fun can help make it a lot easier. Make time for it and feed your spirit.