Whether we want to or not, most of us work too much.
As adults, there is nothing we do more in our lives than work. We will not sleep as much, spend as much time with our families, eat as much, or recreate and rest as much as we will work.
But even if we love our jobs and find creativity, success and pleasure in our work, we all need to play more.
The word “play,” from the Middle English term plega, means “to leap for joy, to dance, to rejoice, to be glad.” Play is about activity outside the sphere of the customary, the necessary or the materially useful. It is “is a refuge from ordinary life, a sanctuary of the mind, where one is exempt from life’s customs, methods, and decrees,” according to the book “Deep Play” by Diane Ackerman.
For both children and adults, play is about awe, wonder, rapture and enthusiasm. In play, we drop inhibitions, give ourselves permission to imagine, to be creative, to be curious. Unfortunately, for too many of us, our various forms of recreation and play are really about rehabilitation, recuperation and recovery rather than rapture and rediscovery. Often this is because our diversions are really only momentary distractions from the usual pace of life. They are designed to overcome fatigue, numb awareness or appease a particular appetite — all for the purpose of reinvigorating and restoring us to the work tasks at hand.
Play is not just a game or a simple distraction or diversion. Play is a crucial and necessary part of life. Play, for both children and adults, helps unlock the door to the world and ourselves. Play allows us to escape from the wear and tear of the “everydayness” of life. Play allows us a moment of recovery and perspective on “who we are” and who “we don’t want to be.”
This summer, add some large doses of play to your busy schedule. Trust me, nobody’s last words are — “I wish I had put more time in at the office!” Wouldn’t it be better to say — “I worked hard, and I played even harder!”
