Play: Learning How

Emerald City: Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers Who is the Weaker Brother?

Play: Learning How

“The trick is not to arrange a festival, but to find people who can enjoy it.”

–Frederick Nietzsche.

I would rather write a post on how to get an article written, dinner finished, the plants watered, keep a three-year-old happy and be that adoring, sexy, strong, comfortable in your own skin wife than write a post about playing. I spend a lot more time figuring out the first list, not so much on the second.

For summer 2013, all Soulation’s writers are writing on play, how to do it, what it means, why it bothers and haunts and delights us.

We’ve all got our strengths. Mine is not playing. I feel like a junior higher on the dance floor when I watch my husband and son kick and tickle and, well, play. I don’t know the steps. So I take pictures and put them on instagram, or I check my emails, or I make dinner.

Might as well get something done while they are playing.

What’s the point of playing, what’s the end goal? As soon as you tell me I’ll find a faster way to get there, like taking a walk pushing the chariot and listening to a lecture on resting.

Josef Pieper caught my eye two weeks ago when I found his very rare (very expensive) book, “What is a Feast?” holding his “Pascal Lectures on Christianity and the University”at the University of Waterloo. And while I do realize the irony of reading about feasting rather than having one, I found some ingredients that are giving me permission to practice play.

Sailing last weekend.

The ingredients of a feast:

a day of rest from utilitarian profit
a day of joy

Joy, according to Pieper, is “the possession or receiving of that which one loves.” But what if I love getting things done? (I just made kale chips and answered three voicemails–that gives me great joy.)

Play pushed me to practicing those loves that go deeper than crossing items off my list of to do’s (addicting though that may be).

I love sailing when there is nothing to do but hold on for dear balance.
I love reading poems at the end of hectic nights.
More recently, I love reading Harry Potter (3rd book–and do NOT spoil the ending for me).
I love writing poetry.
I love smelling the wind in White Woods in summer, clover and honey that intoxicated us to buy this parcel in the first place.

For you, dear friends, inspired by John 3:8 and the open window.

Get Ready

I wear a backpack of reasons

to steer clear of idleness.

The devil’s workshop, the threat

of poverty, the anxiety of boredom.

Outside my window,

the aspen knows how to play,

rustling with exuberance

her leaves unafraid

to fall

before their time.

Soon will crisp and fall

and crunch. Even their death

a playful pirouette to earth.

But the ant,

the ant that stores up for winter,

that the lazy must go to

observe

we are the ants of God’s army,

food storage for winter

trails of productivity

a earthen hill of home

to protect.

When did the Son of Man

play?

What prophet had the time

when lightening sat

poised and thousands

might die?

I cannot be the daisy-chainer

from Carmichael’s poem.

Souls are pitching

over the edge,

winter will come.

Are you ready?

Never, never,

never ready.

So, ready yourself

for the pitch of the wind

smell its kiss

on your husband’s skin

the honey

caught and thrown

from unfurling leaves.

Let the three-year-old choose

the path through the woods.

Make a tangle of the sheets

let the kale chips burn.

– White Woods, Summer 2013.

Postcript: This post was true play for me after a week of heavy modesty discussion over at “Is Itsy-Bitsy Wrong? Bikinis and Modesty“. However, the modesty quest continues at my husband, Dale Fincher’s blog, Six (Wrong) Assumptions from the Modesty Lifeguards. And stay tuned for my vlog this Friday, where I’ll interview Dale on the real meaning of ”Don’t cause your brother to stumble” passage (6/28, 10 am).

More Gems on PLAY from Soulation:

Did this post make you want more on PLAY? For the rest of this series, see below.

From BreakfastReading

Let’s Play for a Month

Difference Between Doing and Being

Can You Play as Good as I Can?

What’s Work Got To Do With It?

Bottling Grandma’s Kitchen

Playing With My Food

Taking it Outside

From SturdyAnswers

Serious Play