Play

At yesterday's play/discussion group, the leader gave everyone a handout listing all the various benefits of play. The list would make anyone, even an old curmudgeon like me, want to add more play to her life. Among the benefits of play: "Play lets children discover for themselves their most vital talents and knowledge." "Play, because it is fun, leads to creativity and curiosity." "Darwin played in the garden collecting leaves, and on the beach with shells; that started his curiosity in evolution."

It's always a delight to see my child discover new things, then focus on them with the intensity of a laser beam, with that natural absorption that babies have, and that many young children manage to retain in spite of the too-numerous distractions contemporary life throws at us. And it fills me with wonder whenever I see his face light up for a particular image in a storybook, or when he starts giggling at some silly thing his parents are doing. Play = surprise and discovery.

I started thinking about play so much, in relation to my own life and interests, that I couldn't sleep last night. So I went to the living room and pulled out a book that I've only glanced at--have been meaning to read it more thoroughly--John Cage's Silence. One of the first passages I came to:

"And what is the purpose of writing music? One is, of course, not dealing with purposes but dealing with sounds. Or the answer must take the form of paradox: a purposeful purposelessness or a purposeless play. This play, however, is an affirmation of life--not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living, which is so excellent once one gets one's mind and one's desires out of its way and lets it act of its own accord."

I agree with everything he says except the very last part--one's desires and mind are part of the whole; they do not necessarily clash with "the very life we're living." But sometimes, it's true, we cannot hear past our desires, we cannot hear the environment that surrounds us...the sickness of Western industrial and post-industrial society stems from this (if one wants to be grandiose about it)...

At any rate, both the instructor/nurse at the playgroup, and John Cage, are onto something important. Play is important. Play is necessary. And yes, as a new mother, I feel sometimes that play--adult play, of all kinds--has been thrown aside, for this time-consuming business of raising a playful, joyful human being. More on that in a future post, undoubtedly.