Making Fun of Grown-Ups

Who’s happier, 3-year-olds or 33-year-olds?  It’s not a trick question.  

If you can’t answer, go by a nursery school and watch the kids.

Then drop by a coffee shop or bar where Millennials hang out.  Notice the differences between the Millenials and the kids.

Sure, you’d probably have a lot to say.  I’ll sum it up with two sentences:  The 3-year-olds still have their bodies and are having fun.  The 30-somethings are in their head and have lost their bodies; they are trying to have fun.

The 3-year-olds have the innocent pleasure of their bodies, all the sensations, emotions and ups and downs that go along with it. They fling themselves madly into play or casually relax into relaxing.  They raise their voices in demand, howl when they don’t get it and ask again, over and over.  Clearly, their desires are intact and they freely express their natural physical exuberance.  No question they are alive.

30-somethings, on the other hand, are trying to figure out what would be fun.  When they think about it, nothing sounds fun.  So they enter an existential crisis of the mental and emotional variety.  They don’t know how to have fun; they don’t know what they’re here for.

I’m not making fun of anyone.  I’m stating the obvious.  We live in a society that conditions us.  We have fun as children and get serious, stiff, motionless and mental as adults.

Don’t believe me.   Take a look for yourself.  Adults want to have fun; they’ll tell you that.  They fall short because no matter what the mind does, it can’t have fun.  The mind can be distracted but it can't have fun.   The body can have fun:  the moment the mind starts assessing, it’s no fun anymore.

The one and only cure for being stiff:  Amuse yourself.  

Sing like no one’s listening in your best off-key voice.  Dance like your geeky brother-in-law at his wedding.  Wear clothes that don’t match and observe others’ reactions.  Just be weird and fulfill your every desire.  Fall in love several times a day and have your heart broken as well, that many times. Change your name to something quirky and tell people that’s your new name and ask them to call you that.   Sleep naked and dream.  Tell bad jokes and make people groan.  Dance ecstatically.  Take up a new and loud instrument and play in public.  Stop caring what others think of you.

One last word to the wise:  Watch 3-year olds at least for a few minutes every now and then and do your best to be like them.