"He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden."
-Plato, The Republic

Somehow, it seems to me, that the older you get, the more effort it takes to find something fun to do among friends.  In the days of our youth, any trivial game or experience was enough to provide amazing recreation and amusement.  However, as time moves forward, we start entering the professional world, and the stupid fun games we used to play are no longer considered appropriate nor fun anymore.  It is as if some genetic marker has suddenly switched on to inhibit attention to the illogical imaginative experience.  Such activities are just too immature and childish.  We've grown up...and so now we play grown up games, which are...?

I don't know.  What do people in the professional world do for fun?  Work and/or continuing education becomes such an important part of life.  Even exercise becomes synonymous with work as it involves physically working your body to improve your health.  And the all the world becomes mechanistic in a timely fashion.  We becomes ants in the colony.  Do these ants every have fun?  And if so, what does this fun consist of?

Perhaps for those who are lucky enough to end up with a job or education that they are passionate about, the necessary work they do becomes a part of their recreation.  Ah yes, the geeks, the nerds, the work-a-holics who love their jobs, research, classes, etc.  

Then there's probably the drug abusers who find work so dull and stressful that at the end of each day, they go out to the friendly bar, where everybody knows your name, and internally direct their mind into a state of recreation.  Taking time to get their mind off work through intoxication may have been the route for fun that appeals to them most.

And I suppose there's also others who take on alternative approaches to find something fun to do.  Yes, it seems like when we grow up, we gotta actually set aside time for fun in our busy schedules like an elective course.  Fun doesn't and usually cannot spontaneously happen at any moment.  Not like some random musical where everyone suddenly gets up from their busy lives and dances and sings in unison.  (Haha, although that would be pretty awesome)  Rather, there is a particular time and place for everything.  Didn't you get the memo?  Organized parties, clubs of interests, intramural sports, dinner plans, etc.  

It's somewhat disappointing how recreation has become so mechanized like a lot of things as it develops to patronize requirements of the more mature professional world.  And yet, it's also somewhat appealing and logical...like that's the way things should be.

Eh, just something I've been thinking about.



Oh, and on a related topic, I've joined an intramural flag football team and an intramural soccer team.  It seems that if there's one thing that hasn't changed between the changover in the philosophy of recreation from youth, it is the prevalence of sports as a common means to have fun with your friends.  Yes, fun times indeed.