Fun vs. Practicality

It has come to my attention the fact that things that are "fun" and the things that are "practical" rarely fall into the same category.

It started out when I was talking to my lovely mother about how I'll be doing two days of driving this weekend for one day at home. My mom pointed out how it was not practical.... and I retorted that if she was going to always be practical, she'd never have any fun.

First let me apologize to Mom for being a smart aleck, but second let me point out how true it is. Just think about the funnest moments in your life. And stop correcting my grammar, I know "funnest" isn't a word but I like it better than "most fun".

For example, the other night a friend and I were playing Catch the Chocolate Chip, you know, chucking chocolate chips at each other from across the room and trying to catch them in our mouths. There are many different versions of this game, like Catch the Cheerios or Catch the Goldfish. Or Catch the Pebble, but that's usually a game between two people when only one person, the person throwing the rock, knows what you're both playing.

Anyway, we were having fun, but it wasn't practical because chocolate chips are expensive and would be better used for their intended purpose, like baking. I guess their final intended purpose is being eaten, but they're more cost effective if you use them for baking first.

And then my roommate handed my Catch the Chocolate Chip pal a potato. And as he had run out of chocolate chips (I think), he pretended to throw me the potato. And as I put my hands up to catch the potato, he actually threw it. Thus started the game of Hot Potato. We started throwing it to a third person, then a fourth, then a fifth, and then we had five college kids playing Hot Potato for an hour and a half.

Again, this was impractical because food costs money. We could have saved that potato and eaten it. Another reason this game of Hot Potato was impractical is because it took place after midnight, when we should have been studying or sleeping. It was a waste of time.

Other examples of impracticality include vacations, especially the ones to the beach, watching TV or movies or YouTube, lounging, eating because you're bored (which is really fun in my book. I love food), joyriding around town, or napping just because you have free time. And yet those are all things we love doing.

There was a quote by what's-his-bucket, John Lennon (I just looked it up), that says, "Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted."

Long story short, I've decided impracticality is okay.