Oh, how I want to rant today. And you know what about... about fun. Because I think that fun gets a BAD rap.

Based on the divorce rate, the number of issues at schools, etc, I think families are in serious crisis.

Now...I have this theory, and it may be way off base, but here it is: part of the issue is that fun and leisure and pleasure are so judged and discarded by society as unimportant.

People don't spend time with their spouses, their kids, their neighbors, their friends just hanging out laughing. nope... it's all work, work, work. Dad's pulling overtime, Mom's pulling overtime, then on day's off it's work, work, work at home to catch up on all the things that didn't get done. And... geez... the billion activities some parents put their kids into. I've seen some families where the kids don't get any down time. They look exhausted.

All this running around makes humans eat junk food and fast food, which puts their bodies into some sort of crisis mode because they don't get the vitamins they need.

Emotionally they are defunked from dealing with one stress after the next.

And spiritually... well, heck... many churches don't seem to be about giving people something that lifts them up and gives them hope.

People aren't nourished... not spiritually, emotionally, physically, or mentally.

And don't get me started on the over-commercialization of holidays which leads to financial crisis and more stress and more work. When did we become a nation of more, more, more and never satisfied with anything?

It's more important to a child to sit for a parent to play a game of uno with them than to get the biggest, latest, most special, popular gadget on the market. It's more important for a husband and wife to sit out on the porch with a glass of wine and make out than to buy a new 60 inch flat-screen TV (which often they don't have time to use because they have to work more overtime to pay for it!)

But, nope... fun gets a bad rap. Relaxation gets a bad rap. Between our Internet, blackberries, cell phones, pagers, etc, etc... people are just on, on, on all the time. Working. Doing something that is urgent. There is no time left for quietness. No time left to play ball with your kids. No time left to have sex all afternoon.

I don't know why feeling good is looked on with such suspicion. I think people owe it to themselves this weekend to just RELAX. To talk. To read. To have fun with friends. To do creative projects at home and enjoy life.

Just my 2 cents..