Play

This past weekend I felt exhausted from combined travelling, lots of (fulfilling) work, tons of (wonderful) social connections, and little sleep. I debated but ultimately decided to join some friends at the beach. As I arrived I was immediately gladdened to have community, access to beach, and felt more alert and silly. I felt playful.

The day before my husband, Kevin, had met some of these same friends to play a whole slew of team sports. I'm told there was some type of home-run derby, capture the flag, ultimate frisbee... stuff involving grass stains. He was so excited! That morning he woke early, baked cookies, and wouldn't stop to breathe as he expressed exuberance about the day ahead. We later joked that he and many of the other participants were like wonderful puppies-- you throw a ball and they fetch, you offer food and they gobble, you rub their bellies...

Kevin and I reflected later that adults used to play sports more commonly together. Not serious competitive stuff but neighborhood leagues or leagues associated with their work. Certainly that exists to some degree but feels a little less common. The movement towards and away from play seems to ebb and flow-- recently I came across an article about adult playgrounds cropping up in major cities. Then there are statistics about adults today working more hours than medieval serfs.

I heard an interview on NPR with an author speaking on community. He felt that communities became more commonly a place to sleep when porches were enclosed in the 1950s and 1960s. As people spent less time relaxing on their porches they knew one another less well. TV's presence coincided with this trend supplanting other popular past-times. I'm not trying to be romantic nor nostalgic, but then again I am. I know it's hard to be in community. It's hard to be accountable to people, to lose anonymity when it feels preferable; but I also know the perils of alienation. Building community should be a primary practice. We need one another and we need to know one another. More than that, we need to be known.

Cause, as folks get to know me, they know I like to play.