Fun

February 12, 2024

Much of our soul child's fun was our pretending to be someone or pretending to have a role. For example, many of us dressed as cowboys, princesses, or Star Wars characters, and the list is endless.

We also pretended to be school teachers and shopkeepers. We pretended to be mothers and fathers when playing house. We pretended to be explorers when setting out for the woods or the hinterlands of our neighborhoods to conquer new territories. We pretended to be builders when we constructed tree houses or forts. When we nested in these dwellings, we pretended to be homesteaders. We felt in charge of our own lives.

In 1924, Gertrude Chandler Warner published her classic book, The Box Car Children, which has been read to children ever since. The Boxcar Children, as you may remember, was about four children who, after the death of their only parent, escaped authorities and remained a family by living in the woods. I recall that my fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Jones, read this story to the class, chapter by chapter, for several days until it was finished.

We were all spellbound by how these children successfully lived in love and fun without supervision. They assumed their parents' roles and discovered an abandoned train box car in the woods, which they made into a home. They filled it with found items such as old plates and cups for which they built a shelf; they made mattresses from fresh pine straw and picked berries to eat. They learned how to darn their clothes and to forage for food.

Why was this fun to listen to? My answer is that just like in Robinson Crusoe, Peter Pan, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Castaway, we experience joy amid uncertainty, love in the face of alienation, ingenuity in the face of deprivation, and hope amid doom. These stories remind us of our inherent resilience and natural survival instincts. When reminded that we have these, we are comforted because we achieve at least the three most rudimentary needs of existence according to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: physiological needs, safety needs, and our needs for love. Only after achieving these can we live in our bliss and have the fun we desire.

Inquiry: Do you remember building a fort or a hut? Did you ever play house? What did it make you feel like to do those things? Why might they have been fun for you?

Dear God,

As I recalled my fun in pretending, I realized how important it was to assume the roles of those we admired, who took care of us, and who brought us into being. It was so much fun to do that essential spiritual work. I am so grateful for these dear souls and the roles they performed and modeled. I am also thankful for fun. Amen

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