This I Believe: Fun

I was eleven years old and knew what a trebuchet was when my brother suggested building one, but I never would have guessed building it would be so exciting and fun.  I think this is when I started believing fun is such a large part of life.

Two A-frames four feet apart and twenty feet high were holding a three inch diameter iron bar between them.  The iron bar had a throwing arm held close with U-bolts.  On one end of the throwing arm the counter-weight, a barrel of sand weighing more than three hundred and fifty pounds, was attached with heavy chains.  On the other end of the throwing arm was the sling holding the projectile.  The projectile could have been anything from a rock to a milk jug to a watermelon.  And to see that thing shoot!  The milk jug would go a hundred feet up into the air and land three hundred feet away.  The power of the trebuchet was awesome to behold.  We shot it over and over again, until one time it collapsed.

So, what was the reason to build a trebuchet?  Because we could, and we could have fun doing it.  Some people may not have had fun building it, but we did.  Some people would have thought it was not worth the effort to build it, even with the fun of shooting it, but we did.  And when it fell, some people would not have rebuilt it, but we did!  And we did it just for the fun of it!

Looking for fun may not come naturally or easily, but it can make life better.  Sometimes it just takes a new revelation.  Going out in public places used to scare me when I was younger.  More specifically people were scary.  Then one day my brother said that people are funny creatures.  This brought me to a new understanding, and I find myself having to control my laughter.  Early one morning, I was on a road trip, tired from my recent awakening.  I saw a biker with tattoos, black leather, spikes of steel coming out of her motorcycle, and a poodle in a basket riding with her.  I could not control my outbursts of laughter.  People are funny!

Often I do things just for the fun of it.  I can wear an orange shirt every day.  Nothing but orange.  I like orange.  Orange is a flamboyant color.  Frank Sinatra once said, “Orange is the happiest color.”  I agree.  I wear orange because it is fun for me to wear orange. 

“Have fun!” my mother always told me, even in some unpleasant situations.  Fun is what we make it.  You can find fun anywhere.  When people ask in troubling times, “How are so happy right now?” I just smile and say, “I practice.” 

I am not a hedonist, contrary to what you may have conjectured.  Hedonists believe life is all about pleasure or fun.  I believe that all of life can have fun in it; you just have to know how to look for it.  This I believe.