Name: That Sounds Fun
Rating: 3.7 (157 reviews)
Author: Annie F. Downs

What’s in it for me? Find your joy.

When was the last time you truly had fun? When was the last time you did something just because it brought you pleasure, and not because you had to do it, or because it had some tangible benefit?

If you’re struggling to remember, then these are the blinks for you. They’ll help you uncover the hidden value of fun, and show you how experiencing simple joys can bring you closer to God. From vacations to moving house to playing chess, these blinks are a meditation on what we mean when we talk about love, hobbies, and enjoyment.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why you shouldn’t delay your gratification too long;
how you should approach your next vacation; and
what green beans can teach us about the Garden of Eden.

We can still enjoy simple pleasures, even when our lives have shrunken.

What’s your idea of fun? The author asks all her guests this question on her weekly podcast That Sounds Fun. But the answers she gets vary.

Most people answer by talking about vacations they’d like to take, or special meals they want to savor. But sometimes, instead of naming something big, a guest says their idea of fun is something small; like eating fried food or reading a particular book. These are the answers the author finds particularly interesting.

In the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic, all of us have had to make our lives smaller. We haven't been able to do much of what we'd usually describe as fun. And yet, we still crave it; our hunger for joy hasn’t gone away. What we really need in these times is low-key fun.

The key message here is: We can still enjoy simple pleasures, even when our lives have shrunken.

Fun doesn’t need to be a big flashy activity with bells and whistles on. Fun, in its purest sense, is actually simplicity. It’s a feeling of having a clear and empty mind with nothing to worry about and no responsibilities to weigh you down.

Not convinced by this definition? Then think about your childhood, and try to remember what fun meant to you back then. When the author does this, she remembers sitting with her mother and grandmother on the front porch of their farm in Georgia. She remembers how these three generations of women would snap beans and talk, slowly but surely, until the sun went down.

Today, the author is a forty-something professional with a busy job and a packed schedule. But only now does she truly appreciate the transcendent simplicity of those evenings. Thinking back to this golden time of childhood, when she had nothing on her mind except snapping the next bean, she knows it was the closest she’s ever come to experiencing that perfect paradise that her Bible talks about: the Garden of Eden, where there was no sin or shame, just boundless love.

Looking at the world now, she’s pretty sure we’re about as far away from the Garden of Eden as we could get. And yet, in moments of pure simplicity and absent-mindedness, we can still glimpse it. Whether we’re snapping beans on a Georgia porch, or getting lost in a book, or joking around with a friend, for a fleeting moment we can feel like we’re there. And it's in these fleeting glimpses that real fun lives.

Embrace your inner amateur, and you’ll open the door to progress.

How would you feel if you tried your best at something, only for someone to call your efforts amateurish? Perhaps you’d feel insulted. After all, we tend to use the word amateur to mean someone who is laughably unskilled at something. But have you ever thought that it might be good to be an amateur?

When the author looked up the word amateur in the dictionary, she discovered it has other meanings that most of us overlook. An amateur also describes someone who undertakes an activity for pleasure, rather than for profit. Now things start to look different. Being an amateur at something just means you’re doing it for fun!

The future isn’t promised, but the present can be a gift.

How alive are you, right now, in this moment?

That might sound like a silly question. Of course you’re alive, or you wouldn’t be reading this sentence. But in a broader sense, are you really living in the present? Or do you often feel as if you’re just waiting for your life to begin? The author used to feel as if she was sacrificing her present happiness for the sake of a future. And this future wasn’t even sure to arrive.

Don’t give up your hobbies in exchange for being a grown-up.

A hobby is something fun we do on a regular basis in our leisure time. Sadly, though, not many adults have one. One time over dinner, the author asked her girlfriends if any of them had a hobby. A hush immediately fell over the table. And so she asked herself: why don’t more of us partake in the kind of joyful activities that sprinkle a little fun over our lives?

Perhaps the answer to this is that grown-up life gets in the way. Many of us give up our childhood hobbies in exchange for an adult life. The author’s father, for instance, was an avid chess player as a child and young man. But when his family arrived, along with a full-time job, he just quit playing. The first time she ever saw her father play was when she was an adult herself.

It’s okay not to be okay.

Sometimes we’re only pretending to be having fun. And the author knows all about that. She remembers the time she vacationed at a Christian retreat in Colorado, known as Lone Valley ranch. This should have been an incredible trip for her, with nothing but blue skies and the majestic rocky mountains in view. And yet, it didn’t go exactly to plan.

The mistake she made was thinking she could treat her vacation like a garbage chute. She imagined herself disposing of all her emotional baggage as soon as she arrived. After shedding her baggage at the door, she thought she’d feel instantly lighter, and be ready to have some fun. But once she got to the ranch, she realized she felt as weighed down with worries over there as she did at home.

Key ideas in That Sounds Fun