Downtime

Then there's this article, "Doing Nothing is Something," from Anna Quindlan, Newsweek editorialist. It's been haunting me since I was led to it by a correspondent from the International Association for the Child's Right to Play. The key idea is that we, our kids, ourselves, simply don't have enough time for fun. Because there's a certain kind of fun that can only be found in unstructured, unprogrammed, downtime.

Then there's this association called "Family Life 1st" with a page of genuinely scientifical research documenting the increase in scheduled time and decrease in downtime.

And there's this old (1997) article about "The Value of School Recess and Outdoor Play" that says pretty much the same thing.

All of which makes me feel a little smugger (more smuggishly?) about the design DeepFUN Retreats. Programming hour after hour of fun experiences isn't enough. There has to be time and space for the free-form, unstructured, unplanned for. A lot of time and space. I think that's why the five-day format, why having the retreats in natural, contemplative settings, has become so central to my vision for the DeepFUN Retreats.

Downtime.