The Pursuit of Enjoyment
From Logic & Levity Volume I, Essay 02
Pulling Positivity Into The Present
So often I've contemplated what the ideal amount of fun is in my life. I've also caught myself thinking this about people who I view as successful. It's extremely easy to do this when countless 100-foot yachts pass by constantly. If allowed to linger, this thought can venture to where the normal line defining material success blurs until it nearly disappears. Exotic cars are more likely rented or leased than owned. Yachts larger than most homes are more likely chartered for hours or weekends than the tangible result of decades of work. While each has an owner, rarely do the true owners use their assets as physically intended. Rather, they generate income which perpetuates their position. Is a certain amount of fun, enjoyment, or entertainment a necessary opposite of hard work? Setting aside traditional work schedules, what percentage of one's waking hours spent having fun is necessary for an optimal mental state to achieve all other desires? I think this answer is different for everyone. Many people say they would love a month-long vacation at a beach only to find themselves bored after a week. What perplexes me is seeing party boats in the middle of the week. Has the entire eight-person bachelorette party taken a week off, or are any of them simply not employed? This thought exercise is done mostly out of curiosity as opposed to judgment. An alternative way of viewing having fun is that drinking too much, for instance, can be interpreted as pulling forward enjoyment at the expense of future composure. Beyond our livers telling us they do not enjoy processing too much alcohol, a hangover is exactly that: a lack of fullness due to it having been already spent. After reading this, you might think that I clearly don't have half as much fun as I should, otherwise these thoughts wouldn't cross my mind. I'll have you know that I should, in fact, have a little bit more fun than I have. Shouldn't we all?