Big Frank likes to play; there he's said it. Now all of you say that word 10 times: play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play. Are you even capable of collecting all the images and connotations that come to mind, that resonate with that sound. It brings back the joy of youthful play, and stirs something in your gut just to say it. Play is so often abandoned with youth, and it needn't be - shouldn't be."The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery."
---- Erik H. Erikson
"Play is hard to maintain as you get older. You get less playful. You shouldn’t, of course."
---- Richard Feynman
"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation."
---- Plato
"In our play we reveal what kind of people we are."
---- Ovid
So it should be no wonder that there a National Institute for Play. It was founded by Stuart Brown, who interviewed thousands of people to catalogue different kinds of play. Through his research he demonstrated "the active presence of play in the accomplishments of the very successful and also identified negative consequences that inevitably accumulate in a play-deprived life".
Play is so valuable that business is keen to put it to work. Watch Tim Brown, CEO of a design firm Ideo talking about play at the 2008 Serious Play conference.
Studying play? Teaching play? What has happened to the world - and to adults that they no longer know how to play? Evidently not because there are therapies out there to bring play back: Play Therapy with Adults is just one of many.
Play can be serious, but seriousness cannot be play. It has no function, but serves many. It is for children, but not only. So get out and play. Do something you choose to do that give you joy from doing it: it can be amusing, pretend, imaginary, interpersonal, or many other things, but it's always, always, always fun.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."
---- George Bernard Shaw
4 comments:
Life is one BIG game... so why not play? X;-) Hi Frank... Hope it's okay with you, i borrowed a quote (and gave you credit) on my blog today... Nice blog btw X:-) Cheers Vicki
(Ps) i 'Found' you when i googled Leonard Cohen's song ~Alexandra leaving~
Tom, it is interesting that you chose Monday as your play day. That was our inservice day at my school, and I am sure you know how we teachers loathe those days. The three morning sessions became progressively worse, but our afternoon session was PLAY. Yes, for real. Our three principals believe in team building, so they devised a race where groups, with people from at least three different departments, had to answer a question, drive in town to the answer, and take a picture of the group at the correct location. We tore through town on icy roads sometimes cutting each other off in parking lots racing to take eight pictures from one end of town to the other. (And you know how big it is here.) Our final destination was Buffalo Wild Wings, where we had a free buffet waiting for us. While my group did not win, we certainly had fun, which made the job of returning to work today much better. And I played today at work, too. A group of students against tobacco was presenting in the library. One activity had them shooting a person with a foam dart to indicate that tobacco killed them. Between sessions I did a little killing of my own in the stacks with one of their guns. I am not old; I am still playing.
Vicki,
Delighted that you found my quotation on "Alexandra Leaving". It is such a great song, and I applaud your dedication to those victims of your terrible fires. Thanks for visiting.
Kath,
Well if I don't restrain myself, after your comment, I might be tempted to say, "Everything happens for a reason"; but you know how I feel about cliches. Still, glad to know that you're still playing as hard as ever. The Minot school system is really cutting edge!
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