Something I noticed at the OULES New Year’s celebrations was that the people there were very good at having silly, joyous fun. I think this is a mindset you can switch into and out of, and it’s much easier to do so when you’re in an environment where others are also sharing in the fun.
I don’t remember ever doing this for an extended period of time before that trip – although even in term-time Oxford there are often flashes of rowdiness and jocularity (e.g. at lunch, during classes), and I like to hop & skip around from one place to another, you return to the realities of life fairly quickly afterwards. There was something very refreshing about having a complete break from that over a period of days. And this isn’t me rediscovering holidays: you could go away to a sunny beach and spend your time reading books, or have a city-break traipsing around museums, and not escape the realities of life much at all.
What does suspending adulthood actually look like? Here are some examples from OULES:
- Telling lewd jokes, playing swearing games
- Jumping across puddles and onto planks of wood
- Making silly sounds for the sake of it
- Getting engrossed in a co-operative game and feeling a real sense of satisfaction from beating it
This is different to playful thinking, which is much more intellectual in character. Maybe one way of distinguishing between the two types of fun is that the suspension of adulthood changes your perspective by zooming in to a tiny frivolity and allows you to forget everything else, whilst playful thinking involves zooming out to appreciate the world’s splendour and elegance.