Just for Fun

I have a collection of hats I wear, both figuratively and literally. When it’s literally, the hat must match the outfit. When it’s figuratively, the hat can be any style or color, since it represents what I do on any given day, going from blogger to marketer to publicist to memoirist to novelist to therapist, to mom, to sister, and to daughter—and not necessarily in that order. However, I’m not unique.

Most women I know have become very adept at multitasking. If my adult children were younger, I’d have to add to that list, as I’m sure young mothers would be able to relate. Yet, it’s usually because of our lifestyle demands that we must wear many hats, all equally important. The thing is, a friend who knows the hours I spend working, recently asked me what I did for fun.

For fun?

I was stumped, since none of those figurative hats represented anything fun. I tried to think of what I did just for me, just for fun and couldn’t come up with an answer. It leads me to wonder how many other women have lost the art of knowing how to have fun. We seem to be a culture doing for others, whether it’s for our job or our family, and by day’s end, the idea of collapsing in front of the television is about as much fun as we can handle. I’m not sure how others feel, but the very idea of not having fun anymore is frightening. Maybe, though, I am defining “fun” how I once did when I was a kid, when the worries and responsibilities were few. Maybe “fun” is now something else altogether. I just need to figure out what that something else is. Perhaps I need to find a goofy hat to wear, one that doesn’t take life too seriously, and whether or not it matches my outfit or mood, I should plant it firmly on my head and keep it there until I rediscover how to have fun.