Fun Tables: Normal and Super

Living in community is often about zoning.  We ask people not to talk about work on the steam table line in our dining hall.  We ask people not to be topless in places where local people are likely to come by.  We restrict 18 wheel trucks to the industrial park portion of the community.  We have a building that the visitors live in while they are checking out the community.  Smoking is significantly restricted in location.  There are only certain places in the community where you can smoke cigarettes.

And at meals we have “fun tables“.  There are two large tables, one inside and the other outside, which are designated as “fun tables”.  Oh, fun happens in all kinds of places, but they have this name because we have agreements about what happens at them.  Specifically:

• You can always sit a fun table
• If there is no room, we will make room
• No meetings or private conversations
• No talking about work

Pass the salt, please.

Willow is often the fun police.  If you start talking about work, he will call you out, sometimes by honking at you.  Some people try to get away with talking about work at the fun table by talking about it in funny accents.  Willow is rarely fooled by this ploy.

Times change, cultures evolve.  We have added the Staedtl, which is a collection of couches and comfy chairs which face each other.  You don’t have to ask to sit in this area and the conversations are an uncontrolled mix of private, public and somewhere in between.  Work is fair game and the fun police are not welcome.

We also have “super fun” tables.  These have the same rules are a normal fun table, except you can talk about work if you like, no need for silly accents.

a quiet moment at a super fun table