Playing around

TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF THE WORLD

Today was a very busy day.  For the first time in a while I was wired and focused  and finally  around 7 PM  I knew it was time to let things go….. to let my mind go play.  I have been experimenting with this concept just to see what  opens up and actually the first thing that roamed  forward was a friend of mine  who I hadn't  seen  in  a while said  on our first  person to person  encounter for a long time….. “let’s Go  Play.”   

So often we are told  “focus on  your passion, stay aligned with your values, plan your work, and work your plan.”  Those things work….and often lead to predictable behaviors and data to prove it.  Fortunately my mind was having little of it by about 8 pM and I was helping my brother from a couple states away set up an email account and my brain was crying “THIS IS NOT PLAYING!”  It is absolutely great to be able to send him things this way now…. and now I let my mind wander free…playtime!

Won’t most of the stuff my brother  and I share be fun things?  Yes… music things….yes…. jokes….yes.   So we were getting  ready to play!    

I let my  mind  drift back and forth in my life and remembered an old Mother Goose book of rhymes. I thought how fun…. and then I thought these poems  were terrifying.  They make  little sense.  One of the things kids love to do is walk on the walls they can because they get a whole  new perspective  on the world—you know instead of the  rear-end or  bellyview on life….

Then there is the brutal   poetry… 

Humpty Dumpty .  Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall…. and then he falls off and two liability lawyers show up  ready to file a neglect suit against the owners of the property…. no wait he has a great  fall… and then all the king’s  horses…. holy  goodness when is the last time  you broke something  and rushed to google  your  local stable to see if there were any ponies who could check out this compound fracture in your lower right leg?     All the king’s horses  tried to put something back together again?  As all the kings men… ?  Well this humpty was an egg-type  thing I guess…. and when have men ever rushed  in to clean up  a kitchen mess?  It may happen more in the modern era.. but back when I  was a kid male wasn’t rushing to clean  up or repair anything  that remotely looked like something that came from a kitchen.  

So then I let my mind drift forward in my play career. A memory of “Jarts” popped in.  These were  steel tipped (very pointed megadarts).   Th  Now these  were gigantic  darts that actually  have a metal point on them so if you arched the trajectory they  would stick in the ground  near a target.  or if  your brother’s arm was getting tired  and a dart slipped a little they might  just lodge in the center of one’s back and hang there from the small piercing they had managed to accomplish.  So that was play too?  

All things considered it was probably  a good thing I gave up  the play mentality  for a while….Oh there were sports and and an occasionally interesting game of twister..but this is sort of a family blog so we’d better stay away from those  references.  

The sad thing is  most of us not only put  our balls and games, and jump ropes in their boxes…we jammed our imaginations in the boxes too…and locked them in the closet or put them in the  garage or somewhere… Well I say bring them back… well not the creepy rhymes or the lawn darts.. but  the games and  the chalk and the  rump ropes etc even the twister as long  as you invite a chiropractor  and let’s play …let’s get out the Lego and the blocks and see what we can build together again.  Our minds need the play.  We need to move things around and reconfigure things and  get a new perspective.  

Okay well here we  go I need to bring  this back around and put Humpty  Dumpty  back together again.. 

nd here’s  my version of the classic rhyme 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall but then got up to dance where joy filled his feet. 

 And music and dancing then  filled the street 

And all the king’s horses were allowed to  run free and be on the plains where they're  meant to be….

And all the  king’s  men remembered  being a boy

Remembering their hearts were once filled with joy

At last Humpty Fell but it was  not from the wall

It was gently to sleep where  he could recall

Only good dreams of his favorite toy

And a kingdom built upon pure peace and joy.

So sometime tomorrow Remember to play a little.  wad up a piece of paper and shoot the winning shot…moon walk to your car…wink at three strangers because four is pressing your luck  .do something with your opposite hand.  Have  one entire conversation  where you end your response  to someone with a word that rhymes with the last  word they used.. 

The world can be a fascinating  playground… explore it tomorrow.  Add a little piece of  peace and joy….but stay away fromMother Goose where kids are falling down from the plague and  a very well known bridge is falling down and kids are forced to sing about this?  Strange beings we are?