It's Never Too Late

 

Play Always

“If we no longer spontaneously engage in creative fun, we miss out on a whole dimension of life that gifts us with confidence, ability, and ingenuity that comes from diving into the process unencumbered.”

Jill Badonsky (The Nine Modern Muses and A Bodyguard, p.104; Gotham Books, 2001)

          Just as we enjoy memories of our misspent youth, we also like to think about favorite games we played as children. I was fortunate enough to have grown up before screens took over the imaginative life of children, so we had to make it up as we went. We took turns creating scenarios for games like “No Bears Out Tonight” or “Missionaries and Gorillas.” We played cowboys and Indians and made raids on the Jolly Kart. We created bowers lined with moss under fallen trees that became our jungle home. All my favorite games were played outside. I loved to build things and create communities from rocks, dirt, and sticks. We didn’t have loads of commercially made toys, so we made our own.

          The inside play I loved most was coloring books. I yearned for a 64-crayon box, and coloring books that were different, interesting, not just big pictures. One of my favorites had Easter eggs and elves, which seemed to have played a large role in the child psyche of the1950’s. Here’s the good news—it’s never too late to have a happy childhood. Unleashing your creativity is key. If you have an opportunity, watch children play (not videogames). They constantly change the storyline and pretend that one thing is another—a stick becomes a magic wand, or a king’s sword. Their imagination is unleashed and unbounded—anything can happen no matter that it requires the willing suspension of disbelief. People can fly like birds, and grasshoppers can become monsters who eat up a village.

          How much fun would it be to open that box of magic again and study its contents. If someone gave you permission to play, or if, let’s say God commanded you to play, what would you do? How would you go about it? Would it feel awkward? Would you feel silly? If you have trauma associated with childhood play, then perhaps you could invent new ways to express the child in you. In the famous words of George Bernard Shaw, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.” Play is always a vital part of life—then and now.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane