Play
This morning I reluctantly rolled out of bed at 7:00ish and headed out to Willow Springs Park to walk and run and watch the sunrise. No, I didn't see Tunesian men playing sand hockey. This image comes from the web site credited below. I'd loaded a recent Speaking of Faith program on my mp3 player, and I listened to it during the hour or so that I was going uphill and down and all around. The particular program I was listening to was titled "Play, Spirit, & Character," and it was all about the value of play in human life, not just in the days of youth but throughout, from the cradle to the grave, so to speak.
According to Dr. Stuart Brown, the guest on this program, play takes many forms in life. In children it's most obvious in their imaginative games and their rough-and-tumble physicality together. Much of the program deals with this kind of play, and it has a good bit to say about organized play--kid sports and such--and the difference between play and contest or competition.
In adults, play rarely has that rough-and-tumble quality of children's play, but it is just as important to our continued development and our internal and external dealings with the world around us. We can be playing at more intellectual pursuits such as reading and writing and painting and blogging. But a certain component of physicality seems necessary for adults as well.
My friends play. One tears some stuff apart and builds other stuff. One gardens and cooks. A couple play with young baseball players. Others play racquetball or dance.
I walk. I run a little. I shoot a little basketball from time to time. One of these days I might buy a bicycle or take dancing lessons with my wife or take up wrestling. My major source of physical play, however, is probably making music. When I play music, I like to play, whether I'm making music alone or with my friends. It's intellectual. It's spiritual. It's physical. It's my most perfect form of play.
The program suggests that one of the most important elements of pure play is a timelessness. This is not to say that the things we play have been played in all times. Instead, the suggestion is that we move outside time when we really give ourselves over to play, when we stop, in a sense, watching the clock, when the activity we're involved in completely absorbs us in the moment.
Hmm, I've heard prayer described in similar terms. Let's not say, however, that prayer is a form of play; rather, let's say that play might be a form of prayer.
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/play/index.shtml
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4569134.stm
According to Dr. Stuart Brown, the guest on this program, play takes many forms in life. In children it's most obvious in their imaginative games and their rough-and-tumble physicality together. Much of the program deals with this kind of play, and it has a good bit to say about organized play--kid sports and such--and the difference between play and contest or competition.
In adults, play rarely has that rough-and-tumble quality of children's play, but it is just as important to our continued development and our internal and external dealings with the world around us. We can be playing at more intellectual pursuits such as reading and writing and painting and blogging. But a certain component of physicality seems necessary for adults as well.
My friends play. One tears some stuff apart and builds other stuff. One gardens and cooks. A couple play with young baseball players. Others play racquetball or dance.
I walk. I run a little. I shoot a little basketball from time to time. One of these days I might buy a bicycle or take dancing lessons with my wife or take up wrestling. My major source of physical play, however, is probably making music. When I play music, I like to play, whether I'm making music alone or with my friends. It's intellectual. It's spiritual. It's physical. It's my most perfect form of play.
The program suggests that one of the most important elements of pure play is a timelessness. This is not to say that the things we play have been played in all times. Instead, the suggestion is that we move outside time when we really give ourselves over to play, when we stop, in a sense, watching the clock, when the activity we're involved in completely absorbs us in the moment.
Hmm, I've heard prayer described in similar terms. Let's not say, however, that prayer is a form of play; rather, let's say that play might be a form of prayer.
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/play/index.shtml
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4569134.stm
posted by mac | 7:43 AM
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