I miss play. It's really pretty sad. I don't play much anymore.
Do you remember when you were a child and you would spend the entire day playing? Sometimes alone, sometimes with your friends...it didn't matter. Time moved slowly. An evening of playing "freeze tag" under the streetlight.
Tonight it is snowing. I came home and asked my wife if she wanted to go outside and make a snowman. I wanted to roll around in the snow...make snow angles...I wanted to return to the simplicity of childhood. We ended up taking a walk. It was nice...an adult thing to do.
Remember the feeling of having school canceled and you could stay up late because you didn't have to get up in the morning? Remember that freedom? Nothing to do. Not a care in the world...
No one cancels my work anymore. No one cancels pain, or Tsunamis, or politics, or broken relationships, or friends who are divorcing, or parents who are getting sick. No one cancels the stuff of life that you can blissfully ignore when you are 7.
I wanted to stay up late and sit in front of the fire...but alas, we both have to get up early for work tomorrow. Even now...I realize I must keep this short so I can function in the morning.
I don't play much anymore. It's really pretty sad. I miss play.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
i like the simplicity of this beautiful post.
this pseudo-twixter thinks we should all play in the snow tonight...
mdog
a lot of my friends work at schools. they haven't been to work in several days, this week. and, yet, i'm out there, every morning, scraping the ice off my windshield so i can come in to my office and stare at the computer all day.
it's not all bad, though. yesterday, when it was still snowing, i walked uptown for lunch. most people, probably would drive (what with the snow and all), but it was such a beautiful snowy day. i thought it was an amazing day, and i walked about in the snow, thoroughly enjoying myself. everyone else on the street, though, looked miserable. they stared at the ground, with their hands shoved deep in their pockets, grumbling about the weather. i don't understand why it was so hard for them to find the beauty of a snowy afternoon. between my office and court street, i pass six or seven holly trees. on my way back, i realized that those trees had never looked more vibrant than they did when they were all frosted with snow. there was one small branch (seven or eight leaves, and a small cluster of berries) that had broken off, and falling into the snow. i was going to pick it up, and carry it into my office, but it looked so perfect, lying there in the snow...so i just left it. but i did wish that i didn't have to go back into my office, and could, instead, just hang out there, in the snow.
geoff.
I miss play too, although I was always one of those kids who couldn't wait to grow up and go to college and be really really cool! Wow, if I had known how boring being an adult really is sometimes I would have dug in my heals and demanded more time to play, imagine, be creative, be a kid, pigtails, dirty fingernails, mudpies and all.
I remember getting bundled up in my snow suit with my sister and my parents would put on their cross country skis and drag us along in the sled to a great hill where we could have at it! Now, I'm one of those people Geoff talked about, with my head down and a grimace on my face waiting for the day I can go outside and not feel miserable. But, it's a mindset isn't it? How we respond is really up to us. It makes me think of what Jesus said, to have faith like a little child. To really see something with a sense of awe and amazement.
Sometimes I wish I could just cancel life, too. If I could, then I would bask in the simplicity of being alive. I would love to stop the tragedies, busy schedules and heart-breaks and breathe in life. That's what being a kid is, I think. The ability to breathe in life, not thinking twice, not analyizng it. (Unless it's a 7 year old and the question is "why...?")
ayn
I give one and all the permission to play. Stay up late playing, if you need to. This sounds like a graduation speech, but we only do get one life. If it's time to play, just go play! You can make up sleep later. I've found there's a sense of satisfaction in being dreadfully tired the next day or two. As long as you make it worth it! "Adult" worries will always creep back around--that's the nature of our lives. Taking a day or two out of twenty isn't bad. It's okay to be alive. It's so easy to forget that sometimes, to get stuck in the trap of being "responsible." Being a little crazy is a very sane thing to do!
Post a Comment