I was reminded the other day of something that I wrote to my sons in 2015, so I thought I’d share an edited version of what I wrote to them.
At the time I wrote to my sons, I had been thinking a lot about my experiences playing disc golf with my brother, Scott and my son, Cory. At those times when I did my best, I was in an attitude of playfulness and joy. At those times when I did my worst (and I’m not talking about the errant throw or the missed putt), I was not in an attitude of playfulness and joy; I was too concerned about the way I was throwing or not throwing to just relax and have fun. It was during those times when I was not feeling playful that my body wouldn’t respond as well to what I was asking it to do. Instead of “lightening up”, I would yell and curse and throw my bag down in disgust; basically acting like an idiot.
In the book “New Self, New World: Recovering Our Senses in the Twenty-First Century” by Philip Shepherd there’s a section called, “Play and the Felt Unknown”. The quote below is from that section and can be found on page 296.
“Any activity, it seems to me, acquires more life and immediacy and effectiveness when buoyed by the spirit of play. Muhammad Ali brought that spirit into the boxing ring; Shakespeare brought it to the theater; Socrates brought it to philosophy. The remarkable neurosurgeon Charlie Wilson brought it to the operating table: as a colleague commented, “He was like a cat playing with a mouse.” I remember interviews with teammates of Wayne Gretzky when they were preparing for a big hockey game. Most of them spoke in terms of “psyching up to take on the other team,” and “gearing up for the challenge,” or their determination to “get out there and win.” Gretzky’s attitude was of an altogether different character: “I don’t go out there for the challenge, as a challenge – I go out there to have fun. I go out there saying, ‘I want that puck – and you can get your own.’” He wasn’t just playing hockey – he was playing. As coach for the Canadian team at the 2006 Winter Olympics, he told them – after they had just been shut out two games in a row – that if they couldn’t go out there and have fun, they were missing the whole point of being there. Donald Winnicott believed that in playing, and only in playing, are you able to use your whole personality; that playing is the basic expression of the creative impulse, which is active in all healthy individuals; and that playing is the basis of all spontaneous living.”
It reminds me of a story that I was told about a Drill Team from a small High School in a rural community that went to a large city in another state to compete in a National Drill Team competition. The instructor of the Drill Team knew that they were way out-classed by the other Drill Teams that were there. She also knew that winning this competition wasn’t all that important for the girls; the fact that they were able to go at all was what really mattered to them. So the instructor gave the girls only one piece of advice, “just go out there and have fun performing.”
As a result of the relaxed state of mind and body that, “just go out there and have fun performing” allowed the girls to be in, they placed very high in the competition, much higher than anyone would have thought possible; and they had the time of their lives!
I have been learning to allow my natural state of playfulness to permeate those areas of my life that aren’t typically considered “fun” (meetings, writing reports, etc). It’s amazing how much more creative and effective I am when I allow a spirit of play to permeate my thoughts and actions.
And with that being said, I had to drive over to the Ophthalmologist’s office to get my annual eye checkup. This fire hydrant was out front, so I just had to stop, lay down on the ground and take these photos:
