The Discovery of Us: How We Come to Know Ourselves

I’m an academic wannabe. Meaning I am not in the field of academia, but I really, really value it.

So for a while, I wanted to be an academic. But then life kind of got in the way, and aspects of my personhood that I had long lived with started bursting forth to the surface, bringing me into uncertain but necessary and formative waters.

It’s interesting how we develop throughout life. Sometimes it takes a while to get to know ourselves.

SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T SEEN THE FORCE AWAKENS:

I like how Rey and Finn, the two main characters of the new Star Wars movie The Force Awakens, are perfect examples of this sort of thing. Rey is discovering who she is as she finds herself caught up in an adventure with Finn to find the legendary Luke Skywalker—she realizes along the way that she is force-sensitive. Finn begins to realize that he can be more than the storm trooper he was raised to be.

OKAY. SPOILERS OVER.

I don’t know at this point if my interests in academia will bring me back to an academic career. Right now, I’m at a crossroads, but you never know where your life might take you.

One thing seems certain, though: Life is highly variable. Don’t let yourself be discouraged if you seem stuck in a rut—you might be surprised that good things can be just around the corner.

Fun Is Essential to Life

Because there’s so much hate going back and forth in this country right now that can be frankly depressing and off-putting, I figure this post should be talking about the concept of fun. I will get into more of my own story, but for now, let’s just talk about fun.

Fun is a great distraction. Of course, work is a necessary component to our lives, and perhaps sometimes it can be fun too.  

We all like to do a variety of things for fun. Some of us like to go hiking. Others of us really enjoy activities like writing, reading, running, playing golf, playing tennis, skiing, playing video games, watching movies with a nice cup of hot chocolate with a friend or a significant other, etc.

You may not enjoy your job, and not every job is really all that fun, but I really enjoy Hebrew and Greek tutoring. It’s something that gives me life, that makes me smile when I get to share this thing I geek out over with others, even if they don’t find it as awesome as I do. All the better when they do love it!

I think God created fun alongside work. Some work is fun, but fun does not have to be work. Through fun, a child learns. Why do we paint our nails? Why do we go watch movies with friends? Why do we play games outdoors and indoors? Why do we play basketball, football (American and otherwise), rugby, etc.?

We do these things because, first of all, they are a means by which we are able to enjoy life. Where would we be with laughter, without song, without games and entertainment and creative writing, drawing, painting?

When God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden and then commanded humanity not to eat from it, it wasn’t the only tree he put in the garden. God filled the garden with many trees, including the tree of life (Gen. 2:9), and God allowed them to eat freely from any tree except for one…to enjoy his creation, but to avoid overindulging.

I think that similarly, when we play, we enjoy God’s creation. Eating is one aspect of enjoyment…there are other aspects too.

Psalm 133 is a perfect example of this kind of celebration of life: The psalm begins with a declaration of how good it is when siblings (the word “brothers” in Hebrew can include both men and women in some contexts) dwell together in unity. This reminds me of what it is like when a group of friends enjoy one another’s company, whether through outdoor hikes, sharing a meal, or playing games like tag, etc.

We dwell in unity. Sometimes we forget about the problems of this world in the process.

When we have fun with others, we see the image of God in them—we enjoy this thing, and we discover that those other people enjoy the same thing, so we discover that despite our differences, we still share something in common.

One of the most beautiful things about fun in social contexts is that people often drop their judgments about others when they are purely enjoying their surroundings and being in the company of the other person.