Play, Radical Play
The image of play seems so simple. Just forget all your cares and do what is fun for you. Be carefree. Be childlike. Drown your sorrows. Don’t worry. Be happy.
There is even a very old popular song sung by Judy Garland that expresses this carefree attitude.
It adds a rather unique twist to play. We do it in preparation for judgement and the life to come!
Get Happy
Forget your troubles, c'mon get happy
You better chase all your cares away
Shout "hallelujah", c'mon get happy
Get ready for the judgement day
The sun is shinin', c'mon get happy
The Lord is waitin' to take your hand
Shout "hallelujah", c'mon get happy
We're going to the promise land
Harold Arlen
I love the word play. It suggests release, of being totally caught up in imagination, or in activities that are fun. When I was growing up, I lived in a playful family. Our favorite activities were waterskiing, fishing, (hunting for the men!), and camping. I played on softball teams in the summer and ice skated several times a week at a local creek all winter. Yet I also remember my brother finding me casually reading a book in my favorite swivel chair and yelling at me to “get outside and play.” Obviously for him play meant active outdoor activities. Although I was not fully conscious of it, I think play meant doing the things that I was drawn to and that ignited my curiosity. But his rebuke stuck with me and has confused, or perhaps even haunted me a bit. Maybe that’s why I am writing about play!
I’d like to distinguish play from sports. Even though we “play” sports, they are most often competitive and are more work than play. Sports have a vital place in most cultures and teach teamwork as well as how to win and lose gracefully. They define entire countries at times. Think of the famous rugby championship in South Africa at a key time in their healing process when Mandala was president. Sports are wonderful, don’t get me wrong. I’m a big baseball fan but I don’t think of it as play😊 (except when my team is losing badly). Then I can be heard to mutter, “It’s only a game!”
So, in this essay, I’m focusing on what we have come to think of as play and how that could be modified to create a healthier climate, allowing play to be restorative and relevant.
How did play become more work than play?
Before you read this section, please list the activities you have done in the last six weeks for recreation, exercise or play. Don’t include what you planned to do but didn’t get around to!
Play has become much more complex in our culture in the last fifty years. Play is rarely childlike; it is more competitive, organized and scheduled. Play may not make our troubles go away as we hope. Play is usually not even simple anymore, but requires expensive equipment or memberships, no matter what the activity. Think of golf, skiing, traveling, or other costly hobbies. And often what we call play is merely a stress reduction activity required to maintain a stressful work schedule! This kind of play may even add to our stress as we drown ourselves in self-medicating play activities, like drinking and recreational drugs. A couple of decades ago I attempted to describe a thoughtful response to this dilemma in my book Real Power, in the chapter called “Leading from Your Soul.” Here’s how I described what play looks like when it goes beyond feeding our egos, our work, or our addictions. I called it soul-feeding play.
Reflect on this list of some key characteristics of soul-feeding play and see what activities come to mind for you. Which of the activities that you listed earlier have these characteristics? Which don’t? Why?
• Activities that leave your body, mind, and spirit rested and refreshed, even though you may get physically tired.
• Activities in which you do not have to win or be an expert to feel good about yourself.
• Activities that stimulate your creativity.
• Activities that take your mind completely off your work and problems.
• Activities that increase your appreciation of others, of nature, of relationships.
• Activities in which you laugh freely and do not feel angry, tight, or ashamed afterward.
• Activities that do not require you to travel long distances.
• Activities in which you do not have to prove yourself or be in charge.
• Activities that do not require a large investment of money or exhaustive equipment gathering or maintenance.
• Activities that bring you closer to who you were as a child.
• Activities that feed your soul, your sense of wellbeing.
Soul-feeding play might now include singing in the shower, joyfully taking the stairs instead of the elevator, stopping at a coffee shop to read a book in the afternoon, making a shawl for a neighbor, riding your bike with no destination, giving someone a free ticket to a concert, dancing in your office when no one else is watching. What would you say are your soul-feeding experiences?
Feeding our souls fuels the love and work that we desire in our life. I suggest that soul feeding is what matters more than love or work, and that it is vital to our lives. We feed our souls through solitude, rest, dreams, breaks, exercise, prayer, music, creativity, friendship, healthy food etc. Mindful play is another fine way to feed our soul.”
How may our “play” become a burden?
There is another level of play that while on the surface seems fun, underneath it has become like an obsession and can eventually become a burnout activity. When we are with people who make play a burden it takes some of the joy and frivolousness out of it –at least for me. It might be likened to a collector who becomes a clutterer because of the volume and the cost of the hobby. I enjoy watching people collect things, keep track of their travels, build beautiful gardens, and create lovely things for others. I love when people get together with others who share their particular interest and can just laugh and talk for hours about their ventures and adventures. I do that with my baseball friends! Yet at some point an obsession with the activity can take over and stifle, or even kill the joy. More on that later when we look at options for our own desired types of play.
Let’s inch closer to what I call Radical Play
As I was reflecting on my life recently, I came upon a new level of truth for me. When I experience things that touch me emotionally, and in my body, and bring me closer to God and others, I truly experience joy. This feels like the element that makes play radical; play that brings joy to me and ultimately to others. A friend suggested that it may be like being caught up or overtaken by a flow of goodness which allows us to open, to allow or to receive.
Radical play brings joy to us and to others.
Let me give an example from one of my favorite women, Teresa of Avila, a sixteenth century nun, prioress and author who is one of the wisest people who ever lived, in my opinion. Here’s a poem she wrote or has been ascribed to her, in which she teaches us what radical play may be.
“Laughter Came from Every Brick”
Just these two words he spoke
changed my life.
“Enjoy me.”
What a burden I thought I was to carry -
a crucifix, as did He.
Love once said to me, "I know a song,
Would you like to hear it?"
And laughter came from every brick in the street.
And from every pore
in the sky.
After a night of prayer, He
changed my life when
He sang,
"Enjoy Me.”
Teresa of Avila
Frederich Buechner also inspires me on what joy means. He says, “We never take credit for our moments of joy because we know that they are not human-made and that we are never really responsible for them. They come when they come. They are always sudden and quick and unrepeatable. The unspeakable joy sometimes of just being alive. The miracle sometimes of being just who we are with the blue sky and the green grass, the faces of our friends and the waves of the ocean, being just what they are.”
“One thing about joy is that joy is always all-encompassing; there is nothing of us left over to hate with or to be afraid with, to feel guilty with or to be selfish about. Joy is where the whole being is pointed in one direction, and it is something that by its nature we never hoard but always want to share. The second thing is that joy is a mystery because it can happen anywhere, anytime, even under the most unpromising circumstances, even in the midst of suffering, with tears in its eyes. Where you have known joy, you have known him. “ From Hungering Dark
With these two wonderful mentors on joy and what I now call radical play, let me give some examples of radical play in my life. They may not seem like play or joy to you, but you are invited to make your own list, since no one else has the truth on what radical play means for you. I just invite you to read my list and wonder with me what this feels like and what may make it different from what our culture would call play. Very few people will applaud you for radical play, but the affirmation from your own inner life and your well-being may be enough.😊
I suggest the characteristics of these radical play experiences are that they soothe our souls, bring joy to us and others, or in some way enhance relationships.
A few personal examples:
Walking along the Mississippi River and sharing its healing places with others.
Savoring dark chocolate, in small doses that seem more like a sacrament than a treat.
Seeing beauty as a “thin place,” in fabric, nature, writing, music, color, personalities.
Dancing the tango with my immigrant friend, to his favorite tango tunes.
My top four radical play experiences are:
4-Love expressed in all its forms, both earthly and eternal. Unconditional.
3-Moments of sheer inspiration when new creative ideas drop into my psyche.
2-Watching transformation happen to me, other people, organizations.
1-Intimacy with God. No words. Heaven on earth. Humor. Sacred repercussions!
If you’ve gotten this far and are interested in an experiment, I invite you to try one of your own new ideas of radical play for one or two weeks and just see what happens. Then compare this radical play experience with what you wrote were your major forms of play at the beginning of this essay. Compare them both with the list I offered of characteristics of soul-feeding play. See what emerges.
Play with what you learned. Play, radical play.
Janet O. Hagberg, 2024. Pass this along.
There is even a very old popular song sung by Judy Garland that expresses this carefree attitude.
It adds a rather unique twist to play. We do it in preparation for judgement and the life to come!
Get Happy
Forget your troubles, c'mon get happy
You better chase all your cares away
Shout "hallelujah", c'mon get happy
Get ready for the judgement day
The sun is shinin', c'mon get happy
The Lord is waitin' to take your hand
Shout "hallelujah", c'mon get happy
We're going to the promise land
Harold Arlen
I love the word play. It suggests release, of being totally caught up in imagination, or in activities that are fun. When I was growing up, I lived in a playful family. Our favorite activities were waterskiing, fishing, (hunting for the men!), and camping. I played on softball teams in the summer and ice skated several times a week at a local creek all winter. Yet I also remember my brother finding me casually reading a book in my favorite swivel chair and yelling at me to “get outside and play.” Obviously for him play meant active outdoor activities. Although I was not fully conscious of it, I think play meant doing the things that I was drawn to and that ignited my curiosity. But his rebuke stuck with me and has confused, or perhaps even haunted me a bit. Maybe that’s why I am writing about play!
I’d like to distinguish play from sports. Even though we “play” sports, they are most often competitive and are more work than play. Sports have a vital place in most cultures and teach teamwork as well as how to win and lose gracefully. They define entire countries at times. Think of the famous rugby championship in South Africa at a key time in their healing process when Mandala was president. Sports are wonderful, don’t get me wrong. I’m a big baseball fan but I don’t think of it as play😊 (except when my team is losing badly). Then I can be heard to mutter, “It’s only a game!”
So, in this essay, I’m focusing on what we have come to think of as play and how that could be modified to create a healthier climate, allowing play to be restorative and relevant.
How did play become more work than play?
Before you read this section, please list the activities you have done in the last six weeks for recreation, exercise or play. Don’t include what you planned to do but didn’t get around to!
Play has become much more complex in our culture in the last fifty years. Play is rarely childlike; it is more competitive, organized and scheduled. Play may not make our troubles go away as we hope. Play is usually not even simple anymore, but requires expensive equipment or memberships, no matter what the activity. Think of golf, skiing, traveling, or other costly hobbies. And often what we call play is merely a stress reduction activity required to maintain a stressful work schedule! This kind of play may even add to our stress as we drown ourselves in self-medicating play activities, like drinking and recreational drugs. A couple of decades ago I attempted to describe a thoughtful response to this dilemma in my book Real Power, in the chapter called “Leading from Your Soul.” Here’s how I described what play looks like when it goes beyond feeding our egos, our work, or our addictions. I called it soul-feeding play.
Reflect on this list of some key characteristics of soul-feeding play and see what activities come to mind for you. Which of the activities that you listed earlier have these characteristics? Which don’t? Why?
• Activities that leave your body, mind, and spirit rested and refreshed, even though you may get physically tired.
• Activities in which you do not have to win or be an expert to feel good about yourself.
• Activities that stimulate your creativity.
• Activities that take your mind completely off your work and problems.
• Activities that increase your appreciation of others, of nature, of relationships.
• Activities in which you laugh freely and do not feel angry, tight, or ashamed afterward.
• Activities that do not require you to travel long distances.
• Activities in which you do not have to prove yourself or be in charge.
• Activities that do not require a large investment of money or exhaustive equipment gathering or maintenance.
• Activities that bring you closer to who you were as a child.
• Activities that feed your soul, your sense of wellbeing.
Soul-feeding play might now include singing in the shower, joyfully taking the stairs instead of the elevator, stopping at a coffee shop to read a book in the afternoon, making a shawl for a neighbor, riding your bike with no destination, giving someone a free ticket to a concert, dancing in your office when no one else is watching. What would you say are your soul-feeding experiences?
Feeding our souls fuels the love and work that we desire in our life. I suggest that soul feeding is what matters more than love or work, and that it is vital to our lives. We feed our souls through solitude, rest, dreams, breaks, exercise, prayer, music, creativity, friendship, healthy food etc. Mindful play is another fine way to feed our soul.”
How may our “play” become a burden?
There is another level of play that while on the surface seems fun, underneath it has become like an obsession and can eventually become a burnout activity. When we are with people who make play a burden it takes some of the joy and frivolousness out of it –at least for me. It might be likened to a collector who becomes a clutterer because of the volume and the cost of the hobby. I enjoy watching people collect things, keep track of their travels, build beautiful gardens, and create lovely things for others. I love when people get together with others who share their particular interest and can just laugh and talk for hours about their ventures and adventures. I do that with my baseball friends! Yet at some point an obsession with the activity can take over and stifle, or even kill the joy. More on that later when we look at options for our own desired types of play.
Let’s inch closer to what I call Radical Play
As I was reflecting on my life recently, I came upon a new level of truth for me. When I experience things that touch me emotionally, and in my body, and bring me closer to God and others, I truly experience joy. This feels like the element that makes play radical; play that brings joy to me and ultimately to others. A friend suggested that it may be like being caught up or overtaken by a flow of goodness which allows us to open, to allow or to receive.
Radical play brings joy to us and to others.
Let me give an example from one of my favorite women, Teresa of Avila, a sixteenth century nun, prioress and author who is one of the wisest people who ever lived, in my opinion. Here’s a poem she wrote or has been ascribed to her, in which she teaches us what radical play may be.
“Laughter Came from Every Brick”
Just these two words he spoke
changed my life.
“Enjoy me.”
What a burden I thought I was to carry -
a crucifix, as did He.
Love once said to me, "I know a song,
Would you like to hear it?"
And laughter came from every brick in the street.
And from every pore
in the sky.
After a night of prayer, He
changed my life when
He sang,
"Enjoy Me.”
Teresa of Avila
Frederich Buechner also inspires me on what joy means. He says, “We never take credit for our moments of joy because we know that they are not human-made and that we are never really responsible for them. They come when they come. They are always sudden and quick and unrepeatable. The unspeakable joy sometimes of just being alive. The miracle sometimes of being just who we are with the blue sky and the green grass, the faces of our friends and the waves of the ocean, being just what they are.”
“One thing about joy is that joy is always all-encompassing; there is nothing of us left over to hate with or to be afraid with, to feel guilty with or to be selfish about. Joy is where the whole being is pointed in one direction, and it is something that by its nature we never hoard but always want to share. The second thing is that joy is a mystery because it can happen anywhere, anytime, even under the most unpromising circumstances, even in the midst of suffering, with tears in its eyes. Where you have known joy, you have known him. “ From Hungering Dark
With these two wonderful mentors on joy and what I now call radical play, let me give some examples of radical play in my life. They may not seem like play or joy to you, but you are invited to make your own list, since no one else has the truth on what radical play means for you. I just invite you to read my list and wonder with me what this feels like and what may make it different from what our culture would call play. Very few people will applaud you for radical play, but the affirmation from your own inner life and your well-being may be enough.😊
I suggest the characteristics of these radical play experiences are that they soothe our souls, bring joy to us and others, or in some way enhance relationships.
A few personal examples:
Walking along the Mississippi River and sharing its healing places with others.
Savoring dark chocolate, in small doses that seem more like a sacrament than a treat.
Seeing beauty as a “thin place,” in fabric, nature, writing, music, color, personalities.
Dancing the tango with my immigrant friend, to his favorite tango tunes.
My top four radical play experiences are:
4-Love expressed in all its forms, both earthly and eternal. Unconditional.
3-Moments of sheer inspiration when new creative ideas drop into my psyche.
2-Watching transformation happen to me, other people, organizations.
1-Intimacy with God. No words. Heaven on earth. Humor. Sacred repercussions!
If you’ve gotten this far and are interested in an experiment, I invite you to try one of your own new ideas of radical play for one or two weeks and just see what happens. Then compare this radical play experience with what you wrote were your major forms of play at the beginning of this essay. Compare them both with the list I offered of characteristics of soul-feeding play. See what emerges.
Play with what you learned. Play, radical play.
Janet O. Hagberg, 2024. Pass this along.