Do you know how to play?

Here is an exert from an article by George Sheehan, former runner and philosopher. The longer version is in his book Running and Being, one of the best books I’ve ever read. I like it and I thought you might too.

Play is where Life Lives

To play or not to play? That is the real question. Shakespeare was wrong. Anyone with a sense of humor can see that life is a joke, not a tragedy. It is a riddle and like all riddles has an obvious answer: play, not suicide.
Think about it for a minute. Is there a better way to handle "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" or take up arms against "a sea of troubles" than play? You take these things seriously and you end up with Hamlet or the gang who came back from World War II, wrote Wilfred Sheed, "talking about dollars the way others talked about God and sex."
Neither of these ways work. Neither will bring us what we are supposed to be looking for, "the peace the world cannot give." That is part of the riddle. You can have peace without the world, if you opt for death, or the world without peace if you decide for doing and having and achieving. Only in play can you have both.
In play you realize simultaneously the supreme importance and the utter insignificance of what you are doing. You accept the paradox of pursuing what is at once essential and inconsequential. In play you can totally commit yourself to a goal that minutes later is completely forgotten.
Play, then, is the answer to the puzzle of our existence, the stage for our excesses and exuberances. Violence and dissent are part of its joy. Territory is defended with every ounce of our strength and determination, and moments later we are embracing our opponents and delighting in the game that took place.
Play is where life lives, where the game is the game. At its borders, we slip into heresy, become serious, lose our sense of humor, fail to see the incongruities of everything we hold to be important. Right and wrong become problematical. Money, power, position become ends. The game becomes winning. And we lose the good life and the good things that play provides.

I play mostly when I am on my bike, my mountain bike. I go out nearly every Sunday night between 20.00 and 23.00 and me and some friends get muddy and have fun. It gets me through the winter months, it inspires me in the summer, it is social and keeps me off the red wine for an evening and out of trouble. I think about the last ride until about Wednesday then look forward to the next ride from Thursday onwards. It makes me a better husband and father and feeds a part of my soul which I haven’t found a better way of feeding. My riding is evolving and the latest project is unicycling ... now that’s play!

What do you do to live a life with play in it?

Piers Carter

Leadership Coach and Consultant