People Need Play

            When people truly play, they are totally themselves because playing leaves little room for pretense. During play we react naturally because we’re caught off guard from our usual overly-structured, carefully-planned activities.

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             Playtime or recreation time is essential because it gives us the time to withdraw from the demands of everyday routines. We let go of official roles, experience new things, and get to know ourselves.

            When we are actually at play, we aren’t trying to achieve anything. We give ourselves permission to let go. No longer a means to other people’s ends, we exist as people in our own right. It is enough just to be natural selves. When we learn to play, the other aspects of our lives, including work and family, begin to take on new, healthier perspectives.

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             Many people, however, retreat to security of their work rather than confront the insecurities of the world of play. Some hate feeling uncharted, having un-programmed contact with life itself. Leisure calls for independence, initiative, and creativity. This can be uncomfortable for some people. They find it easier to adopt a dull or useless idea of leisure by diverting and stimulating themselves with non-interactive, non-demanding entertainment – television, for example. A friend of mine quipped, “I wonder sometimes if we’d be better if fewer films and more actors were shot.”

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            There’s nothing wrong with some mindless diversion once in awhile. But too much monotony, too much boredom, too much doing nothing can produce a sedentary mind and actually cause distress.