Charles Eisenteins chapter on The Playful Universe, from his celebrated book The Ascent of Humanity, is brilliant (Thanks Jay Bazuzi for introducing me.) The Universe tickled me with this gift on my drive home last night, after the happily successful Seattle Lila Retreat. One quote from the section: In our own culture, play is typically conceived to be the realm of children. The Puritan streak in our culture views it as a luxury, an indulgence, which is okay to allot to children in small amounts as long as they have finished their “work” (schoolwork, homework, housework, etc.) On the more tolerant side of the spectrum, play is okay as long as it is “educational”: hence the numerous toys and games directed at young children which seek to smuggle in the alphabet, numbers, or other “cognitive skills”. To echo the Darwinian explanation of animal play as a means to hone hunting skills, play is good because it is practice for life. Play purely for play’s sake is a waste of time, a view based on the purpose-of-life-is-to-survive assumption that underlies modern science and economics. After all, every minute spent playing is a lost opportunity to get ahead in life. Either way, eventually we grow up and there is no more time for play. Now, the grim business of real life begins. Oh sure, maybe we can “afford” to play in our “time off”; that is, the time left remaining to us after we have met the demands of survival. But unless we are extremely wealthy, we believe, the bulk of our time and energy must go toward work. Perhaps the truth is something quite different. Instead of youth being the time for play, maybe it is play that keeps us youthful. Perhaps the boundless free flow of creative expression is what keeps us physically and mentally supple, as a child. When we attempt to control it, limit it, mortgage it to the acceptable and safe, then the bounds of that safety project themselves onto body and mind, subjecting both to a severely limited range of motion that hardens over time.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 18:13:22 +0000
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