I have a question for you..... how often do you let yourself play just for the sheer fun of it. And perhaps even more importantly, can you answer this question? What Is Play For You??
When I was away on holiday with my family recently, we were all down at the beach playing in the water - much like the kids above. My 15 yr old granddaughter was with us watching in astonishment as my brothers and sister - none of us under 55, shrieked and splashed each other. She said to me, something along the lines of, " Nan! What are you guys doing - old people aren't supposed to play like this!" It took her a while to join in the fun with us.....
It is interesting isn't it that here she is at 15, thinking that grown-ups can't be silly and have fun. So what is fun and playMattel for you? Now that's a bit of a curly one, isn't it? Is play interactive - how do we even define play? All of which are very sad questions because ....... Why?
The very fact that as adults that we have to even THINK about what play is and how we might do it, shows that we have lost a huge amount of insight that we had as children. Sure kids get bored and you get the perennial, I'm bored, I don't know what to play type exclamations from your young ones, but have you ever watched children engrossed in play. They don't need fancy toys from Matel. My kids got more hours of enjoyment from a big old fridge box than most of the 'toys' I ever bought them.
That box became a chameleon - some days it was a castle repelling invaders and others it became a time machine landing on different worlds. Enter - The Tardis!
Somehow as adults, we seem to think we need a 'couple of wines' in order to begin playing - why is that? Well, 'a couple of wines' allow us to lower our defences, to not care so much about what other people might think of us. We suddenly become risk-takers, and jesters........ a whole new world opens up to us.
I think some of the main reasons we don't engage in frivolous play as adults are:
• We care too much about what others think of us
• We don't want to appear to be silly
• We consider it is not important enough to warrant spending our precious time on it
• Or we think it is just a plain waste of time!
Well, I'm afraid that all of that is just plain nonsense. The more research there is being done into creativity the more apparent it is becoming that PLAY is THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL element in nurturing one's creativity.
So what are some of the important elements of an activity that might I might put into the
'PLAY' BOX.
How might I have fun on my own?
What activities do I like to share with others?
What do I enjoy apart from doing art?
Is there something I used to do as a kid that I haven't done for a long time and would like to do again?
How can I make time - a space in each week where I play just for the fun of it?
This Weeks Question: Can you make a list of 5 play activities that you do regularly?
Water Pix: Sasin Tipchai
Guitar Pix: SplitShire
Tardis Pix : Andrew Martin