Her quote caught my attention. How does fun cause human thriving?
“That’s something we get wrong about fun,” Price says. “We assume that it’s frivolous or a pleasant bonus to life, but it’s not essential. In fact, we often assume that it’s irresponsible; You can’t be a ‘serious’ person, who takes care of their responsibilities, and also prioritizes fun.”
She debunked this myth by sharing a story about Madeleine Albright from Jennifer Aaker, PhD, and Naomi Bagdonas’s book, Humor, Seriously. Albright was attending a conference as Secretary of State when she learned that she was to perform a skit with her Russian counterpart at a diplomats’ dinner. So, she spent the evening creating it and drinking vodka with the Russian delegation. They changed the lyrics of West Side Story to East-West Story. Rather than: “I just met a girl named Maria.” They wrote: “I just met a girl named Madeleine Albright.” The diplomats dressed up as members of the Jets (the gang from West Side Story) and performed together.
