The Fun Theory

I don't know if this will work but, I'm trying it. In the spirit of promoting fun and not being too much of a perfectionist to try things here is a link. I don't know why it isn't blue. Somebody sent me this email called Piano Steps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

The Fun Theory is a project thing Volkswagen is doing. The idea is that you can get people to do things if they think they are more fun. It really does look like it would be fun to go up and down those piano steps.

I wonder what kind of ideas I could come up with to make things more fun and make me what to do stuff that I don't want to do?

I remember working with someone on a boring job. We were hand-writing addresses on envelopes for a business (they employed us because they wanted to give the personal touch to a sale they were having). This person I was working with encouraged us to have races to see who could get the most done in a certain amount of time. It did make the time go by faster (and we got more done). We had thousands of names to go through. After a while it did get pretty tedious. He was good to work around because he also had a good sense of humor as well.

I used to not like washing dishes and now I don't mind it. In fact it is one thing I seem to get done regularly. I do them by hand because the dish washer is broken. I don't know how much fun it is for me, however. Maybe I like doing it because I like having it done. But I really don't mind it. I've heard many people who say they hate to hand wash stuff, they only want dishes and pans they can put in a dishwasher, and to use the dishwasher for everything no matter how many loads it takes. I wonder why. Maybe it is fun for me! I know I feel satisfied when it is done.

I also know people who hate to do hand sewing. Hand sewing is something I enjoy.

I also like peeling vegetables. I wouldn't want to have mountains of potatoes to peel like in those old army movies, but I don't mind doing enough to make a meal for myself or others. I find it relaxing.

During a period in my life when I was feeling stressed out a woman who I just had started to get to know was giving me a ride with her to Curves (a workout place for women). She was a neighbor who I just had waved hello to in the past. She suggested we go to the Dollar Store (a generic term) after our workout. In the store she went to the greeting card section, noticed some cards out of order, and she started putting them in their right places. She said she found that relaxing. Hehe! I thought I was the only one who did stuff like that!

But I have been having trouble with my quilting because of perfectionism, and I'm not sure what else. And quilting is fun. I think the most fun part is picking the colors and designing. I haven't gotten into a groove about quilting. Maybe I need to just do it.

Churchill liked to lay bricks and painting for fun. I think he enjoyed writing. I think he also enjoyed writing speeches (which seems like a distinct kind of writing). I enjoy writing. I have done painting in the past and have enjoyed it.

I've been reading about Churchill as I've said in previous posts. I haven't gotten very far in the first book I was reading, I got interested in Churchill more than the book written by him, and ended up getting into a library book about him. (I had gotten two actually but I took one back. The book I took back was by Churchill's granddaughter and seems like it would be worth trying again later. It was about lessons in leadership we could learn from Churchill.) The one I've kept is The Last Lion, Vol. 2: Alone 1932-1940, which were years during which everyone had dismissed and mocked Churchill as a man who had failed to live up to his potential and a reactionary not to be taken seriously. That would make another post.

Purpose, Wonder

It’s odd to me sometimes the ways God speaks to me. A snippet of conversation or something here and a bit there, seems to go together to form an answer to something I have been wondering about.

I got a letter from an old friend I haven’t heard from for a long time. I used to send her my Christmas Newsletter and she would send me her “newsletters” which seemed to come out when ever she took a notion. It seems about 2 years since I had heard from her.

In the letter I just received, my friend wrote that she has become a student of Quantum Physics and that QP is opening her eyes to the greatness of God, as Creator. And it has given her a deeper understanding of herself as His creation, as well as a great appreciation of the reality of things which we cannot see.

I was reminded of something written in the book I have been working on reading for the last two months, Les Miserables. Thanks to the computer I was able to find the quote I was thinking of almost instantly. That was a wonder in itself! Computers are good that way.

"Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the grander
view? Choose. ..."

Then I picked up a book by Ravi Zacharias, called “Recapture the Wonder”. Actually, I was looking for some books to weed out of my collection and it caught my eye. I have started it before but never gotten very far into reading it. This time I picked it up and started reading it a little, just to see what I might be missing if I got rid of it. And it seemed to be appropriate to my current state of mind.

I would like to just copy the whole first chapter I just read, but it’s copyrighted so I can’t. Is a bad paraphrase better? Well, anyway that’s what follows here.

He talks of looking at a homeless man digging for food in a trash can. We probably would conclude that here is a man who has not lived up to his potential. This indicates that we have within us a sense of fulfilling some measure of achievement, some sense of potential. We wonder what a child will grow up to be – you could say there is a dream of potential. He says that it is not good reasoning to conclude that disappointment of the dream means that God has created that man's life or all or any of life to be purposeless. And he shifts to talking of people having a deeper hunger within themselves. They may achieve what looks like success and still suffer this hunger. I will quote briefly here: “What is that we want the dream to deliver? I would like to call it wonder… enchantment with reality.”

All this goes together. It is good to be reminded that the same God who created the universe in such amazing splendor, that same God created me.