Conference quark::human_relations-v1

                            On FUN and Related Topics


    	Does it seem like things are worse than ever?  Walking around the
    city, watching the immortal tube, listening to people talk, does it
    seem like we live in an awful time?  Whenever pernicious ideas take
    hold in any era it's common to see them as part of the natural order
    of things and the predictable results of past events.  Rest assured,
    however, the weird time we live in and the _bizzare_ people who run
    our country are not _natural_.
    	There are critical people who write about the times of course, and
    in the transition from the wonderful now defunct Reagan era to the
    wonderful Bush era we have just begun to endure, some of them have assessed
    the economic and social effects of the misguided and dangerous policies
    of the past 8 years; the news of course is bad.  More people are miserable,
    more are down and out than people in America have been in quite a while.
    A shrinking number of people are hoarding a greater and greater share
    of whatever good things we have left, and through it all self-satisfaction
    and materialism have reigned supreme.  The future seems to hold nothing
    better (if there is a future).
    	Originally I intended to discuss the age of self satisfaction, which
    shows no sign of ending, and the evils of materialism.  These things
    are occasionally discussed by other people however.  We've all heard
    of those great polls that tell us exactly what growing percentage of
    college freshmen hold earning lots of money to be their cheif aim in
    life and how they tell their befuddled teachers (poor, worn relics of
    the 60's) about the stock portfolios and BMWs they want to acquire
    preferably within 6 months of graduation.
    	It seems more useful, however, to point out a related, but more
    obscure, rarely discussed phenomenon.  That is of course, _the_strange_
    _disppearance_of_fun_.
    	Look around you.  Think about life today.  Fun disappeared a while
    ago and hasn't reappeared yet.  Yes, it's morning in America once again,
    yes there are plenty of jobs for everyone.  But who could have imagined
    just how boring morning would be?
    	I began to realize fun was hard to come by while considering the
    exciting extension of life the radical conservatives have granted us.
    As we know, as our elected officials all know, _life_now_begins_at_
    _conception_.  As a woman, naturally this news was of personal interest.
    It must have also been great news to black men who learned recently
    that their life expectancy has _fallen_, while everone else's rose.
    With the extension of life black men will probably come out even, if
    not ahead.
    	With all this extra time I began to consider leisure and fun.  Hobbies,
    vacations, things _to_do_.  It was then I noticed fun had pretty much
    vanished to be replaced with work, work, work, and not only because
    we've all said _no_to_drugs_ for once and for all.  Our interest in
    dull, grey, monotonous work wouldn't be so peculiar except that in an
    era of intense materialism one would think fun would naturally go hand
    in hand with buying expensive cars and food, luxury condos, fancy vacations
    (that precious 3 weeks in August), goods, goods, goods, and children
    other women gave birth to.
    	This is not to say that individual slobs don't ever have _any_kind_
    of fun.  Even the grimmest, most ruthless yuppie on Wall Street drowns
    their sorrows once in a while or goes on an occasional ski weekend.
    When it does appear however, fun is less of an activity than a symbolic
    somthing to be purchased.  Cars, comedy clubs, music clubs, expensive
    restaurants, bars, movies, sports that require lots of equipment, vacation
    homes, shopping.  We know it's fun when the tickets cost $18.50.
    	When I say fun has vanished I'm speaking of fun and leisure time
    as a collective goal and a value.  The perfect example of commerce
    masquerading as fun is the expensive car the person of today supposedly
    slobbers over.  On the tube, in magazines (the only 2 things that count),
    owning the BMW or the Porsche is cited time and again as proof that
    the _good_life_ (whatever that is) has been attained.  So what _does_
    this person of today want to do in the fancy car?  It's hard to know.
    No one talks about travelling in them or learning about how they work.
    No one wants to have sex in them or even keep them for more than a
    few years.  They seem to be as useful as a 2-dimensional ad in a magazine
    as they are in the garage... _AND_ their main function is really carrying
    their owner, cursing and complaining through 45 minutes of bumper to
    bumper traffic to and from work.  Boring old work.
    	The only thing less popular than fun is its close relative _leisure_
    _time_.  At least fun can be purchased in two or three wild uninhibited
    hours on Friday night at the old watering hole.  Leisure time means
    doing what you want for hours, and once you start doing that you might
    not stop for six weeks.  Neither fun nor leisure time will ever be spoken
    about by George Bush or any lesser political figure, anyone in the 
    mainstream media or anyone in the educational system from Kindergarten
    to Medical School.  If we ever asked, but of course we never do, these
    people would all proclaim the great importance of leisure time in our
    lives, spending time with the family, going to the county fair, etc.
    In fact those in authority regard leisure time as much like vitamin K,
    necessary in tiny measured amounts to keep us alive, but hardly of any
    greater importance than that (people like George Bush admittedly don't
    have much leisure time themselves; they've replaced it with power, which
    is fun for them, if not for us).
    	The authorities of any age, it should be acknowledged, are never
    fond of fun.  Ours is not unique there.  It's the Joe Averages that
    seem different, they've given up on fun too.  It's odd that in times
    when work is so all important so few people seem to care it it's rewarding
    or interesting or not.  Why does the person of today, and not just money
    hungry yuppies but all different kinds of people, the person a thousand
    generations of our ancestors toiled to produce seem content to get suited
    up each morning to sit at a desk and move papers from one side to the
    other, back and forth, to fax them from one side of the country to the
    other, to Federal Express them to Europe and back without ever caring
    what's on them, or how dull this transfer of funds and papers really
    is.  So finally at the end of the day this person, and you can be sure
    this includes a lot of art persons, can go home and smugly perch on
    their pile of stuff (art persons have the really tasteful stuff), and
    that's it, that's the good life.  The papermoney mentality makes the
    frontier mentaility look pretty good.
    	So what can we do?  First we can define what leisure time really
    is.  For most of us it's the time we have to lead our lives when we're
    not doing tasks at the behest of others.  If we're in school and we
    like doing that, it's a few years we spend before we _start_ doing tasks
    at the behest of others.  In other words since we're not immortal it's
    all the time we've got.  So why, I scream, in the richest country in
    the world, can't we take a _few_more_hours_off_??
    	What can we do?  Spread the gospel of sacred leisure time.  When
    someone says they want "a good job" look puzzled, say "What's that???"
    Insist on an interesting job for yourself (good luck).  A long time
    ago people used to think about _how_to_live_, we can try reviving that
    process.  Try not to have a dull life.  Try to think.  When someone
    asks you what you need or what America needs say: "More leisure, more
    time to think, more fun!"
    
author:  Holladay Weiss
reprinted with permission of author

         Hmmm...
         
         An interesting view. It made me contemplate the times
         I have had fun lately. Having done that, I found:
         
         I had fun yesterday. A friend of mine at work [wonderful
         long haired, bearded giant...] and I took my small
         person [8] on a walk at lunch time. Mom carried goose
         food and discarded hats and jackets while they romped
         through culverts and fed birds. And we talked about
         everything under the sun and guessed one-minute
         mysteries back and forth. Sometimes we raced; sometimes
         we meandered. All the time was spent enjoying the
         sunshine and the wind and each other. It wasn't very
         long I guess, Larry had to get back to work and so
         did I...but it didn't seem *too* short at the time.
         It seemed nice.
         
         And I had fun last week playing guitars with a friend.
         He rattled my cage about singing some old goodie
         an octave too high; and I razzed him about using
         three fingers to pick with instead of two. It was
         lazy and muddled but warm none-the-less. And it too
         was not very long, but it was long enough it seemed
         at the time.
         
         And I drive a Mercedes. And that is fun. She hugs
         the road and searches her way through the gears in
         a determined way; power just beneath the surface.
         She seems a quiet, purring beast until you let her
         out on the highway and you realise she is loping
         along somewhere over 90 without so much as a shimmy.
         I spend inordinate amounts of time in my Mercedes;
         I choose to live in the country and work in the city.
         She gets me to and from in grace and style...and
         that is fun.
         
         I hate to admit this, but I have been known to have
         fun at work. There is, of course the rush of a piece
         that comes out close enough to perfect to pass for
         it. And there is the rush of having the boss think
         you are the best thing since sliced white bread.
         But most of all, there is the rush of "delivering"
         the goods to a packed room of people; the "show";
         the "hype". Hmmm...that is fun!
         
         After I thought about this....it occured to me that
         perhaps the operant word is "attitude" not "fun".
         Almost anything can be fun approached from the right
         "attitude"...
         
         [Well...almost anything...four or five things come
         immediately to mind that are not fun under any
         circumstances I can come up with...but you guys knew
         what I meant?...Didn't you?]
         
         Anyway...I liked the essay...a lot. Made me think.
         
         Melinda

    
        Now Mike....*I* had fun the other day...
    
    	Didn't you???? [grin]
    
    M_

    ... why does there seem to be more here than meets the eye...???

    	I enjoyed the essay, fine piece of writing - BUT - my personal
     opinion - the author should leave Academia and dwell in the real
    world a while.
    
    	Yes - there are many who don't know how to enjoy life, how to
    enjoy leisure time, recreation just for recreation's sake - but
    then there are many who know how to reach out for enjoyment.
    
    	Whenever I travel on vacation time, whether it be a cruise to
    the Caribbean or a tour in Europe the number of fellow travelers
    just out for a good time is very impressive indeed.
    
    	The social circle I share with consists of many people of ages
    ranging from their 20's to senior citizens - Square Dancing. Just
    out for enjoyment, fun and recreation abounds. The number of people
    involved nation wide, is overwhelming.
    
    	When attending plays or symphony concerts with other friends,
    the crowds are omnipresent.
    
    	I understand where the author is coming from, there are many
    people today who have forfeited the recreartional aspect of life
    for materialistic status-seeking, and there are many people whose
    struggle just to meet their survival needs leaves little time or
    energy for recreation. 
    
    	Those who look to work as more than a means to earn the wage
   necessary for their financial needs are well depicted in the essay,
    but we Americans are not all like that - far from it. There are
    many of us who work to live rather than live to work.
    
    	Guy B.
    

    FUN?? LESIURE??
      True these are hard to come by and even harder to make room for
    in my life. But I know from past expierences that I must take
    time for myself each day to do one just one thing I really enjoy
    just for me! I can now do it without feeling selfish. I find that
    when I walk my mile, that although I hate those stretching exercises
    that when I get out there I enjoy every moment or when I take Samantha
    out of her cage and put her on my shoulder when I do housework it
    is fun!
      Life has tought me that different people have different ideas
    of what is fun and what to do during lesiure time.  There is no
    right and no wrong.
    
    Lisa

    
    RE: .5...
    
    There is almost *always* more than meets the eye...Hmmm?
    
    Melinda

    	The keyword here is "almost".
    

    
    .9...
    
    Yup. you're right. I am engaged in some leg-pulling. Mike and
    I had a rather heated Mail discussion going on another topic.
    [grin]....It turned out to be rather enhjoyable arguing with
    him....
    
    [sigh]
    
    Such a let-down? Yes?
    
    [chuckle]
    
    Melinda

    in re .10
    
    yeah, but anyone who hasn't met Mel has missed a unique 
    and special experience :-) ....that could be a lot of fun. :-)
    
    Bonnie
    
    
    
    hi Mel

    re .10
    
    Melinda,
    
    Personally, I can't imagine *anyone* disagreeing with you.  Some
    people really have their nerve, don't they?  It's a good thing that
    I know better!!! ;-)  hahahahahaha!!!!!
    
    Kris

    re .12,
    
    (*chuckle*)
    
    DougO

    
    [ahem]
    
    It would appear my reputation precedes me....
    
    [And before Steve Mallett can jump in with a snide comment....]
    
    Hi all!
    
    And thanks for the cuddle....it felt good.
    
    hugs
    
    Melinda

    
    .14
    		[ahem] Melinda, your reputation is renowned, dear!
    
    Why wait for Mallet, when I can take a shot...??
    
    hmmmmm???
    
    Gene~