BJ Price
A week-and-a-half ago, as we were lighting our home with flashlights and lanterns and powering our refrigerator and freezers with a generator, my wife asked me if I was having fun yet. I don’t recall exactly what my answer was, but I did not reply with a yes. According to folks who are smarter than me, there is something known loosely as “The Fun Scale” for ranking three types of fun. I can’t take any credit whatsoever for coming up with this, but I came across the concept not long ago and it made sense to share it with others.
As mentioned, there are three types of fun. Type 1 Fun is something that is fun at the moment and fun looking back at it. Birthday parties, going to a ball game and watching the Reds win, and playing frisbee in the yard could all qualify as Type 1 Fun.
Type 2 Fun is a little different. It’s not fun at the time, but it is fun when you look back in the rearview mirror. A strenuous hike and cross-country skiing might fit squarely in the Type 2 Fun category.
Type 3 Fun isn’t actually fun at all. It never was fun and never will be fun. While this type of ‘fun’ may be memorable or mildly humorous when looking back at it, there’s no fun involved. Examples of this from my own life would include dealing with a motorhome breakdown on a cross-country vacation, having a dog die, doing plumbing repairs, or getting fired from a non-paying volunteer job that I put my whole self into and really enjoyed. Having lived through each of these experiences, I can certainly say that they all loom large in my memory but it’s hard to associate anything fun with them.
For most of us in southwest Ohio, Hurricane Helene came as a major nuisance that disrupted our lives for several days. Tree branches were down all over the place and homes were left without power. In some fields with mild wind damage, corn harvest will be a little messier than usual, but in others it will be downright miserable, with downed corn leaning and broken off in every which direction. Definitely Type 3 Fun right here.
Our hearts go out to the folks in the southeast who are dealing with the loss of everything they owned, and in some cases, the loss of their loved ones as a result of Hurricane Helene. It could be a long time before their lives resemble anything approaching fun.
Reach BJ Price at 937-456-5159 for more information.
