‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’: A Lesson in Living and Working From Sophie Cunningham

Commentary

“Girls just want to have fun,” sang Cyndi Lauper way back in 1983 in her hit song by the same name.

Today, girls, boys, and the rest of us don’t seem to be having much fun. Anxiety and depression rates are at historic highs among young people. In 2023, the Surgeon General’s office declared an American epidemic of loneliness and isolation, and in June of this year, a Gallup poll showed 74 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with “the way things are going in the United States.”

Which brings a question: Is anyone having fun?

Meet Sophie Cunningham.

If you’re unfamiliar with this 6’1” guard for the Indiana Fever, you are in for a bouquet of smiles and laughter. The 29-year-old Cunningham has enraged some fans and delighted others, but most of all, as we watch her performances both on and off the court, we’re seeing a woman who’s having the time of her life.

Her celebrity started with “the point.” During a June 22 contest with the Phoenix Mercury, Cunningham pointed at opposing player DeWanna Bonner to protest a referee’s call. She held the point for 22 seconds after being warned by the referees to stop. Photographs of her deadpan face and eyes and the feminine curvature of her arm and finger went global, and she became an instant internet star.

Memes featuring “the Sophie Point” came from everywhere, including the White House. Cunningham was depicted as the Statue of Liberty, as a queen, as Adam touching the fingertip of God in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel fresco, as a wife pointing to her husband to mow the lawn, and so on.

Since then, Cunningham has been in the news almost daily. Her defense of women’s sports as being for biological females only, for example, drew a huge reaction, both applause and catcalls.

Whether playing ball with high intensity, just goofing around in videos posted to YouTube, or greeting adolescent girls who adore her, Cunningham looks like she’s having fun. You look at that smile and those dancing eyes, and you just want to smile along.

And here’s where we might all take a lesson from this overnight sensation.

Many Americans have seemingly forgotten the pleasures attached to amusement and delight in living. Politics and the culture wars gobble up the attention of many, contributing to the plague of anxiety and depression.

An enormous number—sometimes I am one of them—get all het up about the goings-on in Washington or some outrageous statement by a candidate running for office and become blind to the beauties and the comedies taking place all around them.

Our frenetic schedules can be another buzzkill, snatching away our time and distracting us from appreciating life’s daily small delights—the palette of color in a sunset, the 3-year-old skipping down the pavement while Mom chases after her, the two teen girls in the coffee shop laughing with affection about the antics of a boy they both know.

Often we look for distractions, recreation, and amusement by scheduling a vacation to the beach or spending an evening with friends, which is all well and good, but we can also snatch fun from random moments of the day.

For me, for instance, a visit to a bookshop is an excursion that qualifies, as is watching my granddaughter Sadie toddle around a living room like an inebriated explorer on safari.

We can even have fun alone. Here’s a story my friend Joe Sam told me 25 years ago that should bring a smile.

A small-town politician and real estate magnate, Sam was awakened one night around 2 a.m. by a policeman knocking on the front door. Throwing on some clothes and heading downstairs, he found the policeman with a little man who was nearly in tears for fear that his friend, one of Sam’s renters, had harmed himself.

The renter, the man said, had been depressed, and now, though his car was parked in the driveway of his home, no one answered the door and all the lights were out.

So the trio went to the rental house, where all remained dark and quiet, and their loud knocking on the door again went unanswered. Finding a bathroom window unlocked, Sam, who was much trimmer than the policeman, crawled through the window and warily proceeded through the house, which was partially illuminated by a streetlight.

When he turned the corner into the living room, there was his renter, a husky fellow about 6 feet tall, dancing naked in the shadows while listening to music on a set of headphones.

Yes, it sounds like an episode from the old “The Andy Griffith Show,” but there was a man who knew how to make his own fun.

For at least a few moments every day, let’s take a cue from Cunningham, keep our eyes peeled, lighten up, and bring some laughter and delight into our lives whenever we can.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.