Playfulness

Even when we are "at play" we seldom play playfully. Baseball, bridge, bowling. Games, yes. Play, rarely.

One of the challenges that seems to confront me on at least a daily basis is explaining to myself and the public at large what exactly it is that I'm doing here, and perhaps even why. You would think that after almost 40 years of doing pretty much the same thing I would have found the key turn of phrase that would have once and all unlocked this consistent mystery.

I'm not actually complaining. I'm certain that the concerns I face have been faced by many of the brightest and shiniest of faces - those belonging to the stubborn few who have insisted on inventing their own darn selves, walking their own silly paths, seeing with their own unique visions.

The odd thing is that I've had the answer at least several times. That it, in fact, probably hasn't at all been the search for the answer that has proven to be such a monumental challenge, but rather my apparent inability to remember the question.

And so it with a profound and thorough sigh that I find myself returning to the idea of "playfulness" and to once again addressing the consistently escalating need we all share for learning and relearning the art of play.

It is no wonder I forget. I watch television. I read the newspaper. I spend time with adults and children who spend most of their days in institutions that methodically drain away the capacity for joy, where laughter is, to say the least, suspect. I, with you, live in a culture whose very roots invalidate playfulness.

But now that I've again remembered, perhaps I can help create for us a small shared reality wherein we can, as necessary, remind each other: to play playfully, to work playfully, to live playfully. Whenever, wherever, however possible.

It has been, after all, after these 40 years, whether I remember or not, my mission, my purpose, my one consistent reason.