Step Two: Play Regularly

I have a beautiful 9 month old son. It is such a joy to teach him how to do the practical things one must master in order to function in daily life. That includes everything from how to hold a bottle tilted up enough so you can drink from it to waving goodbye when someone is leaving. This is Dad 101. Each time a new skill is learned, a jolt of excitement runs through me. You would think he was reciting Shakespeare. And, to me, he might as well be.

These practical lessons, while useful to some extent, pale in comparison to what he is teaching me. Take a closer look at this child (and all children) and listen to what he has to say. For his message is far more important than mine. George Sheehan, long distance runner, ectomorph, philosopher said it best:

"Children who are athletes and poets and saints and scientists all in one..seldom question themselves about purpose. Rarely wonder whether or not they are useful. Practically never consider service and respectability. These latest arrivals from Paradise are nevertheless examples of pure unity of heart and soul and brain united with a body that is almost always in action. And that action is play."

"In play, you realize simultaneously the supreme importance and utter insignificance of what you are doing...Play is where life lives. Where the game is the game. At its borders we slip into heresy. Become serious. Lose our sense of humor. Fail to see the incongruities of everything we hold to be important. Right and wrong become problematic. Money, power, position become ends. The game becomes winning. And we lose the good life and the good things that play provides."

Philosophers and theologians have commented on the sacredness of play for centuries. Plato said, "Life must be lived as play, playing certain games, singing and dancing." Philosopher Jean Houston has observed, "We tend to think of the Faustian man, the one who fabricates, manipulates, seduces, and ends up destroying. But the new image will be man the creator, the artist, the player."

Without play, we risk becoming what Erick Erickson defined as an adult: "a commodity-producing and commodity-exchanging being."

For me, the child has become father to the man.

Heed the inner calling to your own play. Step Two: Play Regularly