My opinion
 

By Dr. Divya Gupta , Dr. Deepak Gupta
Corresponding Author Dr. Deepak Gupta
Wayne State University, - United States of America 48201
Submitting Author Dr. Deepak Gupta
Other Authors Dr. Divya Gupta
Department of Anaesthesiology and Pain Management, Swami Rama Himalayan University, - India

PSYCHOLOGY

America, India, Fun, Food, Job, Play

Gupta D, Gupta D. FUN IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FOOD: India-Based Anesthesiologist and America-Based Anesthesiologist Siblings' Dialogue Series. WebmedCentral PSYCHOLOGY 2019;10(2):WMC005530

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License(CC-BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Submitted on: 03 Feb 2019 11:45:27 PM GMT
Published on: 05 Feb 2019 09:19:37 AM GMT

Abstract


Question: Why Don’t We Enjoy Our Jobs Which Put Food On Our Tables? Answer: May Be Our Souls Are Searching For Fun Rather Than Food.

Dialogue


DiG: What’s up, Bro?

 

DeG: Nothing new, Sis.

 

DiG: You sound down. What’s happening?

 

DeG: I am confused.

 

DiG: Confused about what?

 

DeG: Confused why we feel sad at work.

 

DiG: What’s the confusion in that?

 

DeG: Why we forget that without work we won’t have food.

 

DiG: But don’t you always say, “Fun is more important than food”?

 

DeG: I do. But it seems like I keep forgetting, my own words.

 

DiG: What do you mean anyways, when you say these words?

 

DeG; It’s an inspiration drawn from Bollywood.

 

DiG: Explain.

 

DeG: I read somewhere, that a Bollywood personality, I am not remembering his/her name at this time, once said that Indians can live without food, I think for one day, but cannot live without daily dose of entertainment. It seems like self-serving statement to me initially, but it turned out to be an inspiration for an eye-opening ideology.

 

DiG: But Bro, how can one live off on only entertainment doses unless those entertainment doses themselves are creating food for so many plates in front of so many people and their families?

 

DeG: It’s true that from Bollywood’s perspective, it means driving up the entertainment business revenues and correspondingly generated food for so many and a lot many more. But again, the same question arises, “Are the people in entertainment business even happy?” At least, overdose death rates and suicide rates among the disillusioned and within the disillusioning entertainment business speak otherwise [1-3].

 

DiG: What are you saying?

 

DeG: May be food is NOT the answer that we are seeking from our lives. Food may be only a means to the end and that ultimate goal in life may be just to have Fun.

 

DiG: What do you mean by Fun? Are you talking about endorphins? Are you talking about “morphine”?

 

DeG: It’s not that simple. Let me start from the beginning. Have you ever wondered why children always want to play?

 

DiG; Always. Still I always guide them to work rather than to play, despite their constant resistance. I am NOT sure why children do NOT understand that it’s all for their own good and their own future.

 

DeG: It’s NOT them who do NOT understand. It’s all up to us to understand that we are all born to just have fun and we will always try to find ways to have fun despite any obstacle that aims at preventing our fun [4-5].   

 

DiG: Does it mean that food is being eaten primarily to generate endorphins so that we can have fun and, when eaten food is NOT enough to satiate our needs to have fun, we ingest “morphine” to supplement our fun needs?

 

DeG: Dear Sis, do you think that achieving the goal to have fun can be shortchanged by exogenous “morphine” or even endogenous endorphins [6]?

 

DiG:  I don’t think so, Bro. But how else can one explain, at least the biochemistry of fun? Even mom’s advocated meditation must be working its ways through the biochemistry of fun.

 

DeG: Let’s talk about mom’s method. What do you understand by meditation?

 

DiG: Replacing negative thoughts with pure, total and complete positivity that is sometimes called mindfulness. And absence of all thoughts including the thought of becoming thoughtless that can be called pure, total and complete thoughtlessness [7-9].

 

DeG: Exactly. That’s what true fun means.

 

DiG: So are you saying that even our populations of youngsters who are always seeking to play rather than seeking to work (schoolwork) are also meditating at such young ages?

 

DeG: In a form, though may be unknowingly.

 

DiG: Explain.

 

DeG: See Sis, our minds ask our bodies to enjoy and our bodies respond by playing. Sometimes play involves working as well but our minds are only appeased when we are enjoying what we are doing. Most of the times, it means playing. As Peter Gray states, the core defining aspect for play is that the body can decide to quit whenever it wants to [4].

 

DiG: You mean to say that our bodies and correspondingly our minds enjoy those activities the most which they can freely decide to quit at whichever time they feel to. Is that fun?

 

DeG: Correct that is what fun is.

 

DiG: I now understand. We don’t have fun at work because we are NOT free to quit because of our worries about how else we will feed ourselves and our families.

 

DeG: Good, Sis. You are getting the gist of it.

 

DiG: Even players are NOT having fun in the sports because pressures from fans are NOT allowing them to have fun. Even though they seem to be playing, they are actually working because of actual or perceived forces pressuring them.  

 

DeG: Great, Sis.

 

DiG: Finally, the people who are so called entertainers for the society and its populations are actually in the business of entertainment rather than being in the avenue of joy in entertainment. They were never able to quit once they had come in the limelight and now more so with the limelight shining and devouring them at each moment of their digitalized-socialized-“medialized” lives.

 

DeG: Wow, Sis. You finally got it. But what do you mean by “medialized” lives?

 

DiG: Living under the constant eye of the media [10-11]. Previously it used to be just print media whereas now it is social media and digital media wherein even non-entertainers or non-celebrities are also getting devoured by getting thrown suddenly into limelight overnight with the baggage of living under constant reminder-and-fear that this limelight is quintessentially ultra-short-lived.

 

DeG: Sis, you gave a new meaning to the term “medialized”. Even though medialization among the medical terms means bringing, surgically or otherwise, something, any anatomical structure, into the midline, “medialization” of our lives fit the perspective to-a-T when our lives are being constantly forced to come into the midline of limelight by modern social-and-digital media.

 

DiG: Thanks, Bro, for appreciation and clarification.

 

DeG: You are welcome, Sis. So now what seems to be the gist of our current talk?

 

DiG: To never question our children needs to play and learning from-and-during the plays. To always understand the frustration of not able to quit the works that do NOT seem to be giving joys to ourselves. And to try to accept that modern living is going to make it more and more difficult to have fun secondary to over-entanglement of our intertwined lives within the excessively organized modernly structured living conditions. However, I am hopeful that once we have recognized that “Fun is more important than food”, we will be able to learn to enjoy every moment of life irrespective of whatever modern living is perceived to be throwing at us to rattle us, shake us or break us. Mom’s advocated method of mindfulness/thoughtlessness may come in handy here.     

 

DeG: Well said, Sis. Very well said. Before I forget, there is a great talk on “TED Ideas worth spreading” about “Flow, the secret to happiness” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who beautifully explains how the imbalance between the challenges we face and the skill we have determines how much flow of happiness we will have in our professional lives as well as our personal lives [12]. A must watch.

 

DiG: Will do. Have a good day, Bro.                   

 

DeG: Ditto to you, Sis.

References


  1. Ryan B. Dying to Entertain Us: Celebrities Keep ODing on Opioids and No One Cares. 2018 July 17. Available from: https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/07/17/dying-to-entertain-us-why-celebrities-keep-dying-of- opioids/ Accessed on December 17, 2018.
  2. Just JM, Bleckwenn M, Schnakenberg R, Skatulla P, Weckbecker K. Drug-related celebrity deaths: A cross-sectional study. Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy. 2016 Dec 9;11(1):40. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13011-016-0084-z Accessed on December 17, 2018.
  3. Scott HA. How did Michael Jackson die? 50 celebrities who died from overdoses. 2018 May 24. Available from: h ttps://www.newsweek.com/michael-jackson-death-died-celebrity-overdoses-slideshow-50-943784 Accessed on December 17, 2018.
  4. Gray P. Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life (Book). Basic Books; 1 edition. 2013 March 5. Available from: https://www. amazon.com/Free-Learn-Unleashing-Instinct-Self-Reliant/dp/0465025994 Accessed on December 17, 2018.
  5. Gupta D. Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life (Book Review). Anesth Analg. Published Ahead of Print. 2018 November 30. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1213/ANE.00000000000039 60 Accessed on December 17, 2018.
  6. Gupta D. Rehabilitate Receptors. Detroit Medical News. 2018 Fourth Quarter, pp 24-25. Available from: http://pageturn.vpdemandcreationservices.com/DMN/4Q18/#p=24 Accessed on December 17, 2018.
  7. Shah S. 8 Cool Meditation Secrets for Lasting Peace of Mind. 2016 March 3. Available from: https://ww w.huffingtonpost.com/sejal-shah/8-cool-meditation-secrets_b_9372770.html Accessed on December 17, 2018.
  8. Wickham J. Mindfulness and our mental health. 2015 February 16. Available from: https://mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/mindfulness-and-our -mental-health Accessed on December 17, 2018.
  9. Maharaj A. State of thoughtlessness. 2012 February 3. Available from: https://www.speakingtree.in/arti cle/state-of-thoughtlessness Accessed on December 17, 2018.
  10. World Health Organization. Preventing suicide: a resource for media professionals. Update 2017. Available from: http://apps.who.in t/iris/bitstream/10665/258814/1/WHO-MSD-MER-17.5-eng.pdf Accessed on December 17, 2018.
  11. Fottrell Q. Studies show suicides increase in the months after a celebrity takes their own life. 2018 June 10. Available from: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/there-was-a-10-rise-in-suicides-after-the-death- of-robin-williams-2018-02-08 Accessed on December 17, 2018.
  12. Csikszentmihalyi M. Flow, the secret to happiness. TED Ideas worth spreading. 2004 February. Available from: https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_cs ikszentmihalyi_on_flow Accessed on December 17, 2018.

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