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 not feel free just to have fun.
May be it is good question for each of us to ask himself. Fun, after all, need not have a mortgage on it. Young children do not have to earn the spontaneous enjoyment that is so much a part of their lives. Lovers do not have to pay interest on the joy which they can experience just being in each other’s presence, doing the simplest and least expensive of things. Fun yields its secrets to those who have not lost sight of the fundamental values that still work in the same paradoxical way in all of us. That is, values demand an in-depth commitment on our part especially to each other-and, even as they demand this, they give us a sense of great freedom. It is precisely this reason that many people do not have much fun- because they do not feel free to have it. The answer is not to be found in grabbing at pleasure but in returning to the human truths about ourselves that must be accepted before we experience liberation for a fuller life. Growing up, in other words, is a necessary step forward the rediscovery of the wonderful freedom for fun that we knew in childhood. That is why Jesus said that the kingdom opened its doors to those we were like little children; having fun, believe it or not, gives us some insight into the real nature of that kingdom.
Well, what do you do for fun? If you’re trying awfully hard and enjoying it less, may be you need to explore yourself and the values you live by a little more closely
