To Praise Play
PLAY
Is not the opposite of work
but the improvisational genius
the inner child sage
PLAY
Is rehearsal for reality
remaking of reality
myth-making in motion
shapeshifting on purpose
how we make love to uncertainty
composing music out of paradox
HOLY PLAY
Sabotages fanaticism
and dogmatic ferocity
MUST sabotage fanaticism
can you dignify plain old ordinary play
into Holy Play
to proceed with light-hearted
self-mockery?
we think you can
laugh while fumbling
be wisdom seeker and prankster
HOLY PLAY
could be a default setting
a way of worshiping
play must be free to reinvent itself
at any moment.
We’ve just stated the obvious aren’t we?
this is an informally formal anti-manifesto
and one more thing
Medieval European mystics
called it Ludus Amoris
or the Game of Love
God loves to play
God plays in a spirit of love
with the intention
to make more and more
love.
Eternal play arises anew
in every instant
“Goddess”
is our favorite name
for that Magnificence
On the cusp of the 4th of July weekend, perhaps I join with you to wonder how it is possible to celebrate freedom, independence as America is in free-fall. Thanks to Rob Brezsny for a stellar essay that points to the relation between liberty and play. I’ve excerpted a few ideas here. If you are curious to read Rob’s essay in full CLICK HERE.
2 thoughts on “To Praise Play”
To stay with the theme from the past week, I will offer the phrase “joie de vivre” as an adjunct to your post today. There is, presumably, joy within the context of play, an infusing of life at its fullest.
And yet in my own world of dark pragmatism and empathy it’s difficult to incorporate that joie de vivre into an everyday feeling when the inhabitants of this planet appear to enjoy and relish the suffering of their fellow humans. I try to understand this mindset but no matter how hard I try I cannot conceive of why this is so. Sometimes I can figure out the psychological dysfunctional qualities that drive people to feel this way but even then, I can’t ever fully grasp this attitude.
Tobin your words have weight. The post, words which did not originate with me, ring a note of resistance as far as I am concerned. Good words that help us shift the focus, to align with the potential better self within.
Agreed. Human beings are capable of creating heaven, and hell on earth. If you believe, as I do that cause and effect are inexorable, (what was done to us, – we are likely to visit upon our fellows), it seems to me that those of us who can see a glimmer of goodness in ourselves and in others, ought to band together, making common cause, jointly to cultivate decency and reason. Since we are tribal animals, why not form a tribe of resistance to the madness running amok around us?