But it isn't fun anymore

[aesmael]

There is a phrase people throw out sometimes. "Life isn't meant to be fun," they say.

Most often this seems to be prompted by another person expressing distaste for an obligate activity. The purpose of it seems to be to convince the complainant to accept the current situation, to meet the expectations of others and to cease expressing dissatisfaction with things as they are.

It also reads to me as carrying a vague disapproval of pleasure, as if a person who enjoys life is somehow doing it wrong. That life ought not to be a pleasurable experience, that it ought to consist of drudgery and duty and anyone who does have fun with eir life must be doing so at the expense of other persons.

Of course I am leading up to disagreeing. If a person does not enjoy living, why should ey be expected to continue doing so? Perhaps for the sake of others, and they enjoined likewise against enjoyment of it, network existing because it has been told it must.

And I do not believe life is 'meant to be' anything. Life is.




I (again) no longer care for the argument "You only get one life". Irrelevant. Only one life, why not live it and enjoy it? Many lives, why not have fun with this one if there'll be another (after?)?

Although I do wonder if it would affect people's responses for the number of lifetimes posited to be somewhere between singular and infinite.

Comments

[flynnacatri.livejournal.com]

Well, it isn't meant NOT to be, either...

[syntaxia.livejournal.com]

"You only get one life" never seemed to me much of an argument. The implication of that sentence depends on the individual ("You only get one life, so have fun", "You only get one life, so take it seriously", "You only get one life, so try to make a difference", "You only get one life to deserve eternal happiness in heaven, so better spend most of your time in church praying", etc.)

Given my atheism, I'd rather subscribe to the saying "We only get one universe among all of us. Try not to break it".

[lantyssa.livejournal.com]

It's selfish but vital:

"Because I know what happens to those left after someone gives up completely."

Given I feel that way, then I would much rather people do enjoy their, however that may be, and however many they might have. Which then leads to why I tend to be very liberal and socialist in outlook. It's easier (not necessarily easy) to be happy if one's needs are taken care of.

[skipperofarc.livejournal.com]

I strongly believe in reincarnation. I also believe the world, as it is now, sucks. So my attitude is kind of like Boy Scouts: Leave the world a better place than you found it.

Because if I'm going to be coming back here again and again, I want it to suck less next time.