When I was a kid one of the main objectives in each day was to play. The sound of the bell ringing for recess was sweetly received and I’d rush out to the monkey bars and repeatedly flip myself over in circles, find an open swing, enter into a game of hotly contested dodge or kick ball or try to maintain my queen of the hill status as a tether ball maestro. I couldn’t get enough of it. I simply loved to play.
When I saw the class schedule during my first year as a physical education major, I was curious as to the subject called PLAY THEORY…really? A class about play? What could that possibly entail? Well, quite a bit. as I came to learn more about the subject, I came to understand the distinctions between play and non-play (often referred to as work). Play is by definition undertaking something simply for the sake of the experience. It’s an intrinsically motivated process where the outcome is irrelevant. No prize, no paycheck, no finish line, no personal best. As a result of being motivated intrinsically, we gain a deep satisfaction for engaging in something purely for the “fun of it”.
As we transition from being kids into teens and adults, we are discouraged from playful behavior. “Quit fooling around. Focus. What’s your goal? What are you going to do when you grow up?” are often phrases that confront us during this transition. If we replied back, “I don’t know, I just enjoy learning, or sleeping, or swinging, or hoola hooping” we’d be seen as having no direction, being lazy or apathetic.
Now I’m not suggesting that we don’t have goals or ambitions. But why do we need to let go of playing? What sparks your interest, makes you crack up laughing or drives you to dance and whistle? What are you passionate about that doesn’t need to have a dollar sign attached to it? And if it does…isn’t that a playful bonus?
With Father’s Day arriving tomorrow, I am reminded of how playful my Dad was. We used to play catch or volleyball, go hiking or sit around and shoot the breeze. On the way home from church one day, we even had a skipping race down the hill to our house …can you imagine a grown man skipping as fast as possible down a hill as he raced his daughter? I don’t have to imagine it…I remember it as being one of those embedded highlights of his playful nature. With Dad racing down a hill, skipping no less, he was teaching me that it’s ok to be playful as an adult.
And as my Mother used to say, “now go outside and play…”
Well then…off you go!
