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Did you know that the first roller coasters were built out of ice? In the 17th century long before any type of leisure entertainment industry was established, Russians built large wooden slides frozen over with ice for people to ride down at tremendous speeds. These slides would often rise up seventy or eighty feet and the ramps stretched for hundreds. A staircase led up to the launch area where riders mounted a sled made of either wood or ice. The ice sleds were simply a block of ice with a straw mat adding some protection between the freezing ice and the riders’ bottoms. A length of rope was looped through a hole drilled in the block so that sliders had something to hold onto. Once riders were positioned on their blocks, all it took was a little shove and off they went! Occasionally bumps were added at the end of the slide to introduce a little more excitement. Even Catherine the Great was known to enjoy the thrill of the ice slides and had a few built on her property.

Even 17th century royalty knew how to cut loose and have fun every now and then. Can you imagine an empress going sledding? I’m sorry – riding an ice roller coaster? So if Catherine the Great can lower her guard enough to act a little silly, why should we be any different?

I guess it’s easy for me to say since I’m basically a kid in an adult’s body most of the time. I enjoy sledding down the hill in our backyard perhaps even more than my 7-year old daughter. I love helping her build LEGOs; I’m right there with her when she’s putting together a puzzle. It’s possible for me to say I’m as much my daughter’s playmate as I am her father. And that gets me into trouble sometimes when my daughter expects me to be as amenable to certain playtime activities as friends her age are.

Let me tell you exactly what I mean because there’s one thing I really have trouble doing that I used to be able to do with ease when I was a kid, and it’s very disconcerting. Somewhere along the line I lost my desire to pretend. Even saying it right now, it’s hard for me to believe. How did I lose the motivation to do a silly voice with a little action figure and act out a story along with my child? Aren’t I the same person who used to play with Transformers well into my teens, presumably to indulge my younger brother but really enjoying it just as much myself? Didn’t we sit at the dining room table with our fortresses made of blocks, pretending that Starscream got electrocuted and lost his memory while trying to gain access to the Autobot lair? Yes, indeed we did! Just because I’m in my 40’s, should that make such a big difference?

It’s not like my daughter, Lila, is playing with dolls in some kind of an assault on my manliness, revealing my upbringing during more gender biased days of toys for boys and toys for girls. She just wants to play with her Shopkins or Littlest Pet Shop animals or the Lego Friends (which actually have better people than the little yellow men we used to have). “Here, you take these characters, Daddy, and that’s your house…” that sort of thing. Then you simply walk your little character over to the other person’s door and knock and see where the story takes you. It’s not that difficult! A little boring perhaps, but sometimes I wonder at my sudden lack of can-do, young-at-heart attitude.

There’s even this one toy in particular that I never seem to want to play with for her entertainment. There’s this pirate puppet… a pretty fancy, expensive puppet with an eyepatch and a nice, long, red velvet jacket, whom we named Scurvy. Here’s the kicker – Scurvy is MY puppet! I asked for him for Hannukah one year! And yet I almost never am in the mood to do my best ARGH! pirate voice and have a little pirate conversation with Lila. What exactly did I think the puppet would be used for?

I mean, come on, I have no problem flying my little remote control drone and letting her have a turn. We crash that thing into the yard and even nearly trap it in trees and on the roof, but I always have fun with it along with my daughter. Yet I feel reluctant to act out a little toy walking across the carpet and knocking on the door of house made of Jenga blocks. Why? It makes no sense to me.

It’s one thing to hold onto your sense of play. We all have that inner child that likes to make the light saber noise while waving around the cardboard tube left over when you run out of wrapping paper. But what about your sense of imagination? Can you take your cardboard light saber and act out your best Kylo Ren or Darth Vader voice? I’m including you ladies out there, you can [Darth Vader breathing] with the best of them, can’t you?

Try it! Even if you don’t have kids in your house to inspire your inner child, it seems to be a matter of dropping your sense of dignity. It might take a margarita or two, but why not try doing karaoke one night, even with your adult friends or family? That’s certainly a type of pretending – singing as though you were to original recording artist. Bonus points if you air guitar!

And even if you have the same problem I do with lighting up your imagination, be sure you never lose your sense of play. Even if you have a bunch of stodgy adult friends, all is not lost. May I recommend the game Cards Against Humanity? Look it up; you’ll be glad you did.

Here’s what I learned.

Having fun evolves as you grow older. Perhaps amusement park rides became less endurable as you aged, or maybe Scrabble became more interesting than it was when you were a kid. That’s okay! Introverts and extroverts have different styles of play, too, and our bodies can’t always take the physical punishment of sports we used to enjoy.

The point is to step out of your comfort zone every now and then. The only way to rediscover your inner child is to recapture something you thought was lost. Does your wife want to go out dancing? Just grit your teeth and do it – you might actually discover you enjoy it! Hop in a go-cart with your grandkids next time you go to the beach! Put on the silly hat and do a voice the next time you’re at the mall with your friend.

The worst thing that can happen is you’ll feel a little silly. The best thing that can happen is you’ll have fun, or at least put on smile on your face or on the face of those you’re with. And that’s really what life is all about – enjoying the heck out of it!

I’m Michael Ahr, and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.

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