Living in Baltimore with an acute sense of her pain and suffering I know all too well the two types of urban coping that we might call fun.

We have fun when we engage in activities where we are the spectator or where we are active only insofar as we are engaging a machine or “relieving” our body. These activities provide relief from the caving in pressure of post apocalyptic city living. They might include headphones, television, video games or drug use. They are escapist and detaching to the man or woman, girl or boy, who gathers these activities to them during moments in life where the individual is not fending for their life.

It is possible to have the other kind of fun, and Hula Hoops is an extreme example, whereby one engages in others, in the world around them, moves their body, lives on a whim. Sports and dancing and hula hooping and singing and debating and tight wire walking all give the individual their self in the activity while maintaining the proximity and interaction of the not-self.

Perhaps previous generations or cultures did not have to think about such distinctions but for chrissake look at the state we are in! We must be overt about the nuance of definition applied to words like FUN. We need to take care of ourselves in ways that radiate beyond our body and selfworld.