This willingness to be frank and plain about the way that the world is, is a good first step. But that doesn't mean that you get what you want.

The problem with fun is we really don't know what fun means at all.

We have been trained to think we have enormous power over the world. Whatever you dream, you can do. Anything can be bent to your will. But actually isn't it much more interesting to imagine that you're quite small?

Looking for meaning in the ordinary seems like the most urgent thing that we can do.

With sports and games, you have fun despite working very hard, even despite failing repeatedly. Even the fun of a night out, you have to get somewhere and do all the conversational, social work of being out. There's effort involved. But then when you're finished, you can conclude, "Actually there was something gratifying about the hardship that I just encountered." That discovery of novelty is where the molten core of fun is.

To me, being able to find gratification in more venues, rather than greater gratification in a few, seems like a much more sane way of living.

If you start the day not really expecting substantial change, but anticipating some small new revelation or some small alteration, then over time you're able to find them in more places.