Suddenly a man bursts in, apoplectic with fury, shouting and stamping and banging his fist on the desk. The resident prime minister admonishes him: "Peter," he says, "kindly remember Rule Number 6," whereupon Peter is instantly restored to complete calm, apologizes, and withdraws.

The politicians return to their conversation, only to be interrupted yet again twenty minutes later by an hysterical woman gesticulating wildly, her hair flying. Again the intruder is greeted with the words: "Marie, please remember Rule Number 6." Complete calm descends one more, and she too withdraws with a bow and an apology.

When the scene is repeated for a third time, the visiting prime minister addresses his colleague: "My dear friend, I've seen many things in my life, but never anything as remarkable as this. Would you be willing to share with me the secret of Rule Number 6?"

"Very simple," replies the resident prime minister. "Rule Number 6 is 'Don't take yourself so g**damn seriously!'"

"Ah," says his visitor, "that is a fine rule." After a moment of pondering, he inquires, "And what, may I ask, are the other rules?"

The resident prime minister replied, "There aren't any."

It's August now, and I wonder, are we having fun yet? Forget the heat wave this week, and just work with me for a moment on the general time period. There is something about summer that lends itself to fun...the slower pace, the chance to travel, the break from workplace worries, the time to spend with family and friends. I think of fun as pure joy, freedom to play, creativity, enjoyment of people, plans and travel. There is a sense of lightness that may be harder to find when we are immersed in the steady rhythm of yearly activity. Taking ourselves too seriously may be the No. 1 Enemy to Fun. Of course, the truth is that we can have fun all year long. You may be, like me, your own worst enemy in the fun department, by saving up fun for summer vacation. Another truth is this: if you aren't having fun, probably the people directly around you aren't either. People who have no fun are not fun. Why is it that as our schedule fills, and our "to do" list grows longer, we become sadly forgetful of the essential Rule No. 6?

My original idea for this service was to bring in music for us to sing from the training ground for fun that I most love: musical theatre. I thought we could sing along to "My Favorite Things" or "Getting to Know You" or "Oklahoma" as an object lesson in being less serious. Granted this was my vision of a good time, maybe not yours, but that's the power of the pulpit and in certain ways, you are sitting ducks. Most unfortunately however, our music director John Strang informed me that this, while possibly fun, was definitely illegal. These copyright people really know how to quash a good time!

I would still like to reflect on lessons learned from these beloved shows, stories where there are no tricky nuances, or moral ambiguities, but instead, absolute clarity about good and evil, right and wrong, fun and not fun. When you see Oklahoma, or Sound of Music, or The King and I, you know exactly where you are. You may not want to live there permanently, but it's worth a vacation trip. If you have not seen these shows, may I humbly suggest you put them on your Netflix list and expand your horizons. Warning to the Renter: You will have to put aside many liberal progressive sensitivities and a good deal of seriousness, but think of this as a long practice period for Rule Number 6. You will be OK, really, and you can come back to complexity at the end of the musical.

Now in Oklahoma, my personal favorite, we know right away that the cowboy Curly is the right one for bold and independent Laurie. He wants to rent a great "surrey with the fringe on top" in order to take her to the barnraising picnic for their date, and is clearly the fellow with the best sense of humor and ability to play. In contrast, poor Judd (who will soon be dead), is wooing Laurie with a scary, possessive, menacing intensity. Not a good date, and not fun by a long shot. Curly is fun, and therefore the best mate.

In The King and I, Anna comes in with vigor as the new teacher for the children of the King of Siam, and she brings a fresh spirit to the place. She goes up against a rigid traditional ruler, showing her own back bone and sense of fairness, offering the kids comfort, the women new educational venues, and the whole system gets rattled. I'm afraid that things don't turn out that well here overall, but it's clear along the way that Anna is the one to watch. While the King also stretches and grows, she is the one forging new trails and risking the most. This is fun, when you don't do business as usual.

In The Sound of Music, we really have the most classic tale of fun vs. not fun. The earnest and naive Maria shows up to be the governess for the highly energetic Von Trapp children, and soon they are flying about in look-alike clothing, singing in trees and doing plays about lonely goatherders. This greatly disturbs the regimented order of the militaristic Captain Von Trapp (so clearly not fun) and the sophisticated worldliness of the fiance Baroness (well-meaning, but also not fun). Maria is the epitome of goodness, and bursting with love for the Captain while struggling with being a nun, and of course, he dumps the Baroness in response. It's all excellent, and ends well, even though the Nazis intervene in the middle and the evil boyfriend of the eldest daughter betrays all. Good ultimately trumps evil, and the world is set aright. That's the best kind of fun.

Maybe it's this real business of setting the world aright that makes many of us in D.C. have extended time periods with absolutely no fun, most unlike musicals. Washington is full of people who live grimly by the "to do" list and there is no singing. Folks stay focused on political goals, aimed at efficiency, intent on production, multi-tasking. It's enough to separate you from fun for a good long while. Perhaps because we live in such a toxic anti-fun environment, the August issue of Washingtonian magazine offers us the cover story for remedial fun-seekers, entitled "Have More Fun." If you are in search of fun, I urge you to get this magazine as a kind of low-cost self-help book. The fifty things they offer, under the headline "Go Out and Play," will surely get your fun juices going, if you can just put down the cellphone, Blackberry, and laptop for a minute.

Ok, what's fun, according to the Washingtonian? How about kayaking? Wine tasting? Creative writing? Genealogy? Puzzle nights? Jewelry making? Astronomy? Woodworking? Learning a new language? Teaching reading? Mentoring a child? Swing dancing? Volunteering with animals? Tarot card reading? The message is variety: Do something new, please, or do something that moves you (literally, away from your desk), or do something where you can play and have a good time. Do something different, instead of the same old something else. The No. 2 Enemy to Fun is that we tell ourselves we don't have time to do anything except the same things we are always already doing. Not fun. Not interesting. Not going to get you out of bed in the morning with the maximum zest and spring in your step. Break out of the pattern and try a little difference, and see if it isn't cheaper than therapy.

One of the best things about this "Have More Fun" issue is that they list semi-well-known Washingtonians and give little features about what they do for fun. These could surprise you. For starters, the current Director of the DC Department of Motor Vehicles, Anne Witt, has an interesting hobby. (As an aside, let me say that I recently spent hours in the DMV, and I can say with authority, it is not fun there.) As an antidote to this environment, Anne went on a trip to Key West two years ago, heard the lilting melody of steel-pan music and realized it always made her smile. She came back, bought a steel drum, took lessons, and ended up in the Pan Masters Steel Orchestra in Maryland. Anne said their recital in April was, and I quote, "the most fun I can remember in ages." Let's try John McLaughlin, former Deputy and Acting Director of the CIA. What does he do for fun? Turns out he's a magician and has performed at parties for years, because, as he says, "magic keeps alive a sense of wonder and mystery."

Check out WRC-TV news anchor Susan Kidd, an African-American woman who always believed as a child that Santa looked just like she did. Her fun has been collecting 200 black Santa Claus figures from around the world---and putting them all over her home from Thanksgiving through the Super Bowl. Or how about that Joe Kasputys, former Assistant Secretary of Commerce, now CEO of Global Insight where he does economic analysis and forecasting, not the most light-hearted work. Thirty-five years ago, he took group lessons with his children in ice dancing, loved the feel of play and the workout, and he has been gliding along for years with the Washington Figure Skating Club.

The point is clear, for us remedial fun-seekers: even these very driven, very intense D.C. success stories manage to have a great time when they do something out of the ordinary. In fact, you could say that having fun sort of loosens you up, makes you lively, gives you more energy, and even adds to your productivity overall. If productivity is what you want to worry about...

I'd suggest that the more important question is, what is life for anyway? Remember the T-shirt that says, "What if doing the Hokey-Pokey is what it's all about?" At the end of the day, or the end of your life, it's not likely that we will wish we had worked more, and had less joy, play and fun along the way. Challenging work, and giving back, and changing the world are all important, and I applaud all our efforts. But life without much fun is, well, kind of boring. If you are living a life short on enjoyment, chances are you are also oppressing the unfortunate people with whom you live and work so intensely. There's a wide ripple effect to all work and no play, and the expanded outcome is not pretty.

Fun might be the missing ingredient that makes your whole life take on new luster and shine, and the folks around you will be very grateful. Get out there and enjoy yourself, because the quality of your life depends on it.

Amen.