The End of Fun as We Know It?

Until Robin pointed it out, I didn’t realize that there was a traveling carnival bopping around the blogosphere called “Fun Monday.” It’s shared by several bloggers, so there isn’t one central location (though Robin decided to set up a clearinghouse of all the previous Fun Mondays here).Today’s Fun Monday invited participants to post photos or descriptions of their collections–bloggers snap a few shots of their 54 salt & pepper shakers (S., are you still collecting those?), their 87 teapots (Mom, that’s for you!) or their cute shoe collection (might that include 95 percent of female bloggers?), post them at their blog, and link up via those comments.As I’ve pondered my own Monday FunDay carnival, I’ve concluded that I’d rather support another person’s Monday fun theme than try to compete.I am, therefore, shutting down the Monday fun theme, effective immediately.This does not, however, mean that I’m no longer having fun on Mondays! Perhaps I’ll continue to tell a story now and then to prove that there’s fun being had over here.In fact, here’s a story about our trip to the zoo last week. The Boy kept saying, “I want to see the rhinos!”While we were at the zebras, I leaned on the rail and admired them. We talked about camouflage and he said, “I want to see the rhinos.”“We’re getting there,” I said. ”I want to see the zebras first. We sure don’t see these in Indiana unless we’re at the zoo. Otherwise we’d have to go to Africa.”“Okay. But I want to see the rhinos.”We moved on from the zebras to the giraffes, where we paused and marveled at their height. We watched them nudge each other as they strolled around the trees. The Boy asked, “Can we go now? I want to see the rhinos.”“Aren’t you enjoying the giraffes? They’re amazing!”“Yeah, but I’ve seen them. Now I want to see the rhinos.”“We’re getting there,” I said. “I’m enjoying watching these two interact.”He sighed a little and waited. “Can we go now?” he asked after twenty seconds.“Yes,” I said. “We can go. The rhinos are next.”“Oh, goody!” he exclaimed. We walked across to a viewing platform and pondered the rhinos. What lumpy beasts! We read on the sign about how they are usually gentle beasts that other animals leave alone because of their imposing size and horn. I figured I’d have to settle in and wait as The Boy spent time with the long-anticipated rhinos.Within seconds, however, he said, “Well, let’s go. I’ve had enough rhino-ness.”I guess the rhinos weren’t as fun as he imagined. They stood around a lot, lumbered a few steps; one rubbed his head against a rock. They’re amazing, but not too animated. I guess I’d had enough “rhino-ness,” as well.As we walked on to see the elephants, I thought about how often I add “-ness” or “-ish” to words, just playing with language, to be cute. I wondered if this would be a bad habit and mar his middle school essay assignments in a few years?Well, I do hope you have fun today, in some small-ish way. Play around with language. Go to the zoo. Or consider photographing your favorite collection and hopping over to todays’ Fun Monday to share it with the world. In fact, leave a note here in the comments of this post, for one last Monday FunDay hurrah–-that way we can track you down and share in your fun.Also, if you already prepared something to participate in Monday FunDay, post that in the comments, as well, and we’ll pop over to see what you’re up to!Have a great, fun day!