By: Frank Kovalchek
I knew I was back in the US when a neighbour greeted me with ‘Hey travelling girl’ and proceeded to tell me about a new activity he’d taken up – disco bowling. Now, there’s a combination for you. One of the things that’s slowly dawned on me is that the American pursuit of happiness might be better described as the pursuit of fun. No, let me restate that – the pursuit of FUN – because I’m talking about fun in a big way.
Some Americans have rooms in their houses devoted to recreation. We lived in living rooms in the UK, and dined and dining rooms, but I don’t think I ever came across a British rec room. I met an American on my travels and asked her what she missed most about home. ‘Playing’, she said and I knew what she meant. Americans seem to have some kind of special facility for it.
On a trip to Orlando, we once checked ourselves in for a dinner and joust – yep, a real live joust with medieval knights on horses. I use the term ‘medieval’ very loosely though. The 13th century event took place in a 20th century cement block structure, the horses performed to early 19th century Strauss waltzes and the battles were enacted to the theme music of Ben Hur (circa 1957?). The location had me foxed as well. The building was decorated with the names of Spanish towns but the MC spoke in a quasi-British accent and the horses looked like they’d come straight from Vienna to me. And then I realised it was pointless to be troubled by these questions. Nobody else was, and heck, they were irrelevant. I had to be in 21st century America because nobody around me was allowing any historical or geographical facts to get in the way of having a good time.
So all in all, it’s very nice to be back in the US and if anybody wants to invite me disco bowling, I’m ready to play. And if you’d like to combine any other pursuits as well, like glass-blowing-on-roller-blades or karioke-skydiving, I’m prepared to give it a whirl – just so long as you think it might be FUN.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Karenne Sylvester, Alexander Zabolotsky. Alexander Zabolotsky said: Very interesting link. […]
Can I come too? There’s definitely not enough fun in my life right now and I’d love a bit of disco albeit with a heavy ball in my hand :-)))
I ‘m glad you posted this article about FUN. It’s something I noticed in the UK classroom : almost *everything* had to be “fun”. When we went out, we (teachers) *had* to have “fun”. I’ve never been to the USA, but the pursuit of fun seems to be very present in the UK too. It was quite nice at the beginning, but after a while, I found it boring. Because my idea of fun may not be connected with laughter all the time. I may well have fun while just *discussing*, even very serious topics,even without laughing, even without alcohol. Mon dieu ! is that possible ? mais oui ! FUN is not an international concept, it’s pretty much linked to culture. I remember great fancy dress parties in the UK! choosing the fancy dress, putting make-up on, all this was part of fun of course but I thought the main part was that no one was supposed to recognise me ! so I did not speak the whole party so that no one could hear my accent ! people thought I was bored, but I had so much fun.
FUNny, especially the bit about the lack of historical details.
David
Karenne – anytime. 🙂
Alice – you’ve raised something really interesting. I once wrote something on some ‘happiness’ research that had been conducted in the US. We sent it off to readers around the world, and it went down pretty well with all reviewers except those in France. And their explanation and help they gave me was really interesting. If I can find it, I’d like to post about it, because it merits a blog post of its own. It was, about the relative importance of ‘happiness’ in the wider scheme of life and ties in closely with what you’re saying.
David, great to meet you and thank you for chipping in. I have just been enjoying your website at: http://languagegarden.wordpress.com/
I would love to read your take about the “happiness” research. This is a highly interesting issue, certainly worth a blog post of its own.
Merci,
Alice
[…] why Americans do this because it’s still a puzzle to me. My best guess is, as I’ve noted elsewhere, there seems to be a greater willingness to dispense with historical accuracy if it starts getting […]
Yes, I always miss this idea of fun in a big way while living abroad. Perhaps in places I’ve lived people are too concerned with being sure they can get by. Because Americans don’t often have to worry about the future, we can enjoy the present a lot more.
Great to see you Nick!
Your comment reminded me of a book on my shelves somewhere called something like Ameri-think and Brit-think. As I recall, the author manitained that Brits are be pretty fatalistic about things while Americans are more optimistic. He claimed Americans even think death is optional – or at least it should be if they work hard enough at keeping fit and healthy.
You’d imagine optimism would lead to a happier life, but the author maintained it was actually a burden because people felt a responsibility. Not living forever would mean you’d erred. It was a funny take on things and I must find the book, tell folks he really said (have forgotten a lot) and write a posting on it.
[…] and refrigerators culture Add comments Nov 102010 Speaking of FUN, I’d like to say a few words about American fridges. Firstly, of course, folks don’t call them […]
[…] why Americans do this because it’s still a puzzle to me. My best guess is, as I’ve noted elsewhere, there seems to be a greater willingness to dispense with historical accuracy if it starts getting […]