Play

Several days ago, Devin was talking to me about his unfulfilled need for play, and more pointedly, partners in play. I have witnessed my brother growing up being in a constant and never quite fulfilled pursuit of friends with whom he could play. I don't think I ever felt that need quite as strongly given my introvertedness, but the need to play itself I certainly felt just as strongly. I'm pretty sure that's universal.

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When I try to remember my childhood, I am saddened by the fact that I do not remember playing all that much. I remember competitive playing, such as basketball teams and at recess. (I've been remembering how much I loved four-square and dodgeball (that's dodgeball with one ball and people either "in" or "out" of the circle - with the ones doing thd dodging "in") - so much that I'd love the chance to play them again.) It's not that I don't remember free time during my childhood. It's more that I'm noticing an absence of creative play. I remember consuming a lot of entertainment, but I don't remember "producing" my own entertainment very much. It seems that such a thing would have just taken too much energy. But where did that energy go, if not into creative play? I think I started the cycle very young, the same cycle I follow now, and would follow forever if I weren't to make drastic changes in the way I live my life on a daily basis. This cycle, I'm pretty sure, began with school by introducing the drudgery of work, reciprocated by the seeking of numbing and mindless entertainment in order to recover and escape from life until the next bout of drudgery had to be endured. I somehow managed to waste whole summers by some macro form of this otherwise daily cycle of little death following little death.

I found a neat essay about the importance of doing what you love. We learn in school that work must be a drudgery, that it cannot possibly be fun. And it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This was the highlight of the article for me:

"More often people who do great things have careers with the trajectory of a ping-pong ball. They go to school to study A, drop out and get a job doing B, and then become famous for C after taking it up on the side.

Sometimes jumping from one sort of work to another is a sign of energy, and sometimes it's a sign of laziness. Are you dropping out, or boldly carving a new path? You often can't tell yourself. Plenty of people who will later do great things seem to be disappointments early on, when they're trying to find their niche."

I would only object to the negative connotation being applied, as always in this culture, to laziness (via the protestant work ethic). As Bertrand Russell said so wisely, "the time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." Nevertheless, the article gives some good tips in succeeding in one's search for the work one loves. I'd like to get into a bit of a debate over semantics, since the word "work" is so far gone in this culture with its implicit and pervasive association with drudgery, that the word "play" should always be used when speaking of things one loves to do. Although, I guess there is just as much in the way of implications to fight against when going the other way, as play is viewed conversely as void of productive value or practical application in addressing the fulfillment of life's daily needs (food, water, shelter). Regardless, I intend to play throughout the whole of my life, and make a living doing it.

Tags:

• unschooling
• work