The Paradox Par Excellence

What Do You Do for Fun?

A psychologist colleague of mine once asked that question of a number of professional people only to find that they were hard- pressed to give much of an answer. These people all had serious responsibilities in life and the idea of having fun for its own sake seemed strangely remote from their experience. Fun could be earned by a hard day’s work, they felt, and satisfaction came from a difficult job well done. But the idea of spontaneous enjoyment seemed for difficult for them to justify for themselves; they did…