Thursday, September 23, 2010

Funnest Thing Ever

"Dad, what's the funnest thing you've ever done?"

The question came from the back seat of my truck. We'd just pulled to a stop at a red light. 

Zalen, my 7 year old son is not much of a talker. Especially when there are lots of people around, but on occasion when it is just you and him his questions can lead to some great conversations.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean what is the most fun thing you have ever done. In your whole life."

I thought about it until the light turned green and I couldn't come up with an answer.

I could think of lots of occasion when i was happy, but that 's not exactly what he meant and I could think of many times when I'd had fun. Even if I tossed out the ones that were not appropriate to share with my 7yo son they choices were too tough.

I simply could not commit the word MOST to one single occasion so in order to buy time I turned the question back on him, "I'll have to think about it a minute. What is the funnest thing you've ever done?" I met his eyes in the rearview mirror, expecting to hear an answer tied to a commercial enterprise. Perhaps our visits to Disney World, or Six Flags, or maybe something we did on our most recent vacation to Denver.

Instead, Zalen grinned and said, "I liked it when we went to the mountains and fished while walking in the stream. Remember that deer that walked in front of us?"

"I do," I said smiling back.

"Can we go do that again?" He asked.

"You bet," I answered.

Luckily he let me off the hook and didn't reask his question, but a month or more has gone by since that day and for some reason it bothers me that I cannot assign the tag most fun ever to any of the events or even days in my life. Should I be able to? Can most adults do that very thing or only children? Is it the fact they have less years behind them and therefore fewer experiences to decide from? Or is it something else that makes it so difficult for me to use the word most?

This post is really going nowhere except that I wanted to toss this idea out there.

Can y'all narrow it down and designate a funnest thing ever? If not why do you think that is?

And if you pinpoint that one blissful occurrence do you hold it up for comparison. Do you say to yourself saying, "Yeah it was fun to to take that corner at a hundred and ten but not nearly as fun as that time me and Jimmy drank that case of Shiner pack in Luchenback and ended up waking up on Willie's bus outside that Allsup's at 3 AM. I still can't believe they didn't have but two dozen chimichanga's, and who the hell ever heard of dipping them in a Cherry Slurpee anyway?

10 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

I'm assuming I could answer "sex?" If so, I've got my answer.

Annie said...

Most fun EVAH: Body surfing with the hubby at Bellow Air Force Station Ohau, HI. No kids. No crowds. Just the two of us under the sun...cigars and bottle included!

Man, I want to do that again!

Being Beth said...

That word most makes it hard. I think it's because I've had a lot of fun over the years. I found it interesting that I could easily narrow it down to one event, but it was always attached to a person or relationship. I can name the most fun I ever had with my husband, the most fun I had with my children, the most fun I had with my grandparents. But picking the ONE most fun thing was tough. It's a toss up between wrestling with my dad and brothers (an event that happened almost daily) and the time when I was about 12 years old and I snuck out of the house at dawn, climbed the back fence and took a long barefoot run through the woods one October morning. I've never felt more like myself or more free than I did on that October Indian Summer morning.

Great question!

I may have to borrow it. :)

Monnik said...

I couldn't pick just one. No way. This has me stumped too. It's going to bug me all day now.

jjdebenedictis said...

I think it's like asking which of your children you love most. There isn't an answer to that. They (meaning either the children or the experiences) are all too precious to be ranked. Some things just cannot be forced into competition.

Old Kitty said...

I think the funnest thing I did happened on a field under a perfect summer sky on a perfect summer day with a perfect someone. And a pub lunch was involved too. And no!!! It was all very chaste and very sweet thankee!

LOL!!

I must prefer your son's beautiful fun time!

Take care
x

sybil law said...

Well, you took my Slurpee answer, so...
No, seriously - like you, I've had plenty of awesome fun but tagging one event as THE MOST is really hard to do.

Cloudia said...

Thanks for letting me feel what it is like to be a parent for a few moments, Travis.




Warm Aloha from Waikiki

Comfort Spiral

Carol J. Garvin said...

Great question but I don't know how to answer it either. I think the problem is that word "fun". Using your son's response, maybe "most meaningful", or "happiest" would be easier to pinpoint. The concept of fun changes with perspective. :)

Lana Gramlich said...

I think part of the problem is that fun can be relative. "A" was lots of fun because of "Z," but "B" was a lot of fun because of "X," y'know? It's like comparing apples & oranges.