Yes, I continue to dwell on the “Is all fun profitable?” idea. It occurs to me that part of the reason I have difficulty with responses like Brad Spangler’s is that it’s based on something that may be ineffable for as long as humans exist: a way to objectively define, quantify, and calculate relationships among concepts including “profit”, “fun”, “cost”, “risk”, and “happiness”. I could go off on many tangents from that observation—and I may still, in future ramblings—but for today, I will simply say that I am unconvinced that an economics-based analysis is always the best course.

And that is particularly true when considering deeper issues, such as the purpose of life. Does adopting a dry, profit–and–loss perspective mean an implicit acceptance (to some degree) of the fallacious idea that work and play can never overlap? It seems so to me. And I reject that idea, simply because time and again my experience has shown it not to be true. I enjoyed teaching so much—and was rewarded for my efforts so richly—that it was a continual surprise to me that people were willing to pay me money for it. Same with making my candy now. Why shouldn’t life be like that, as much as possible? Why must we separate fun from serious endeavors? Why should work be an endured drudge? I know of no rulebook that says it must be so; and if there were such a book I would reject it anyway as propaganda intended to sap much of the possible enjoyment from life.

I’ve been thinking about these things a lot lately, for a variety of reasons. Today, someone I have known and respected for a long time summarized what I consider to be the healthiest approach to living. I aspire to it, but don’t always succeed; thus, I asked her for permission to reproduce her ideas here, to serve as handy inspiration for me. She agreed, so here they are, slightly modified to focus on the ideas:

[L]ife is romantic, in the best sense of the word. More than twenty years ago, a chap asked me to define life, and I wrote back that “Life is awareness making love with existence”.

I have not changed my mind one bit on that. We get to fashion our lives to be as we want them to be, all controlling propaganda and power-based paradigms to the contrary being only just that: thinking patterns taught to us to keep us “in our place” ~ taught by those who would control us. Forget them, and have fun. Have entirely too much fun. Enjoy every minute.

My life is wonderfully and beautifully romantic, lovely and happy, and ignoring government, and refusing to fear its threats, really adds a lot to the quality of my life every day.

Walk in beauty.

You may know of the author of those inspiring words from her work at the Fully Informed Jury Association. Iloilo Marguerite Jones is also involved in many other delightfully subversive projects, most notably Means of Inquiry. I’ve known her for many years, and hope to make her acquaintance in person soon.